Like the gooiest, sweetest cup of eggnog, “The Holiday” doesn’t have a whole lot of nutritional value, and you’ll probably hate yourself afterward for giving in to it, but it is rich and yummy and irresistible.
Writer-director Nancy Meyers, who established herself as the queen of the glossy chick flick with 2003’s “Something’s Gotta Give,” offers another beautifully shot, flawlessly crafted film that’s both an homage to and an update of the classy, classic romantic comedies of the 1940s.
Everyone’s witty and great- looking, with fashionable clothes (thanks to costume designer Marlene Stewart), fantastic cars and to-die-for homes. It’s total female wish fulfillment – as if an entire issue of InStyle magazine had been brought to the screen. So just sit back and try not to think too hard.
Cameron Diaz and Kate Winslet star as bright, talented women simultaneously suffering from man troubles who swap homes for the holidays through a website to get away from it all.
Diaz’s Amanda Woods, whose company creates movie trailers (a very clever job to give a character), ends up in a cozy cottage outside London after discovering that her longtime live-in boyfriend (Edward Burns) has cheated on her.
Winslet, as London Daily Telegraph wedding columnist Iris Simpkins, finds herself luxuriating in a modern L.A. mansion after the colleague with whom she’s had an on-again, off-again romance (Rufus Sewell) announces his engagement to another woman.
Cutting back and forth between their stories, Meyers reveals Amanda trudging through the snow and getting drunk by herself on red wine when there’s nothing better to do, while Iris swims laps in the pool and soaks up the Southern California sunshine.
Diaz and Winslet encounter an unexpected new love interest in Jude Law and Jack Black, respectively. Diaz and Law, by the way, have got to be the prettiest couple in the history of cinema – even more so than the two-headed monster known as Brangelina.
If you thought Law’s book-editor character, Graham, seemed too good to be true when he’s first introduced, wait until you hear his back story. (Bring Kleenex.) Conveniently, he also happens to be Iris’ brother, who knocks on the cottage door drunk after a long night at the nearby pub.
Black, meanwhile, is a funny sweetheart of a guy as film composer Miles, which gives Black a chance to sing and do his overly familiar Tenacious D rambling, which by this point he seriously needs to stop. Miles, a buddy of Amanda’s ex, shows up at the door one day and befriends Iris but remains smitten by his actress girlfriend (Shannyn Sossamon), who he believes is out of his league.
Iris also finds an unlikely friendship with Amanda’s next- door neighbor, Arthur, an aging screenwriter played with warmth, humor and substance by Eli Wallach.
The meetings aren’t the only things that are cute in “The Holiday” – at times, the film is almost sickeningly idyllic. (As Iris herself tells Arthur at one point, “I like corny. I’m looking for corny in my life.”) But it can also be undeniably charming, so you may as well just check your cynicism at the door and surrender.
“The Holiday” | *** RATING
PG-13 for sexual content and some strong language|1 hour, 31 minutes|ROMANTIC COMEDY|Written and directed by Nancy Meyers; photography by Dean Cundey; starring Cameron Diaz, Kate Winslet, Jude Law, Jack Black|Opens today at area theaters.
