reviewed by Charity Bishop

        

Female writers know all about the secret innermost desires of a woman's heart. They know what it is like to be in love with someone who doesn't realize they exist, and also how love can just creep unexpectedly up on you. If there's one thing to be said about writer/director Nancy Meyers, it is that she knows how to emotionally connect with her female audience, and that may very well be what makes The Holiday so special.

For the past three years, Iris (Kate Winslet) has been in love with a man who only thinks she exists for his own amusement. Self-centered Jasper (Rufus Sewell) threw her over for another more advantageous match, but she still buys him Christmas gifts, proof-reads his material for the magazine they both work for, and pines over him from a distance, while her friends watch on in repulsion. When the big Christmas party at the newspaper brings about the announcement that Jasper has become engaged to his new woman, Iris is thrown into a manic-depressive fit that causes her to search for a way out of her life for a few weeks. She puts her charming country cottage up for trade online and soon has a nibble from an American businesswoman.

Amanda (Cameron Diaz) is the head of a marketing production company that makes trailers for Hollywood films. Highly paid and something of a workaholic, it comes as no real surprise to her when her boyfriend cheats on her, getting him thrown out of the house and her desperate for a change. She stumbles across Iris and agrees to exchange houses for two weeks. Iris flies out in coach to Los Angeles and makes herself gloriously at home in a mansion, where she soon strikes up a friendship with the sweet, old, retired screenwriter down the block, and eventually befriends Miles (Jack Black), an aspiring film composer. Amanda, in the meantime, meets Iris' seemingly womanizing brother Graham (Jude Law) and it soon becomes apparent that it's more than a one night stand.

The bottom line about this movie is that I loved it. I have rarely loved a movie as much as this one, because something about it resonates with my soul. It has a very gritty amount of truth in it, as well as moments of sweet humor and surprisingly human characteristics. Yes, it s funny but it's also heartwarming. The characters felt very real to me, despite my disapproval for some of their choices. Amanda and Graham's attitude about spontaneous sex, for example, leaves a lot to be desired, but balancing out their more trashy romance is that of Iris and Miles, who are the real treasures of the film. The acting is beautiful, the writing is quite funny and meaningful, and it has quite a special ending. One of the more subtle contrasts was that Iris cannot stop crying whenever she's unhappy, whereas Amanda is incapable of shedding a tear.

Unfortunately, there are some content issues although most of them are verbal. There is a spattering of British profanities amidst the humor, and one f-word. Amanda and Graham have a one night stand, then sleep together several more times, but we never actually see them at it. There is an uncomfortable amount of dialogue between them over whether or not they should "have sex" on their first meeting, which is rather awkward and absurd when you consider how dangerous something like that is in real life. They are shown in bed together, Amanda in her underclothes and him bare to the waist, late in the film. It did rather soil their storyline and makes it inappropriate for younger audiences. I would prefer a cleaner version, but still it is quite a sweet story.