by Rachel Stibi

Created on: August 31, 2008

From the writer and director of Something's Gotta Give, Nancy Meyers brings us The Holiday, the story of two women with horribly problematic love lives who switch homes for Christmas. Starring Kate Winslet, Cameron Diaz, Jude Law, Jack Black, and Eli Wallach, The Holiday is a simple romantic comedy that anyone can love.

Iris Simpkins (Kate Winslet) is a lonely commitment columnist in London who is in love with her colleague Jasper Bloom (Rufus Sewell), a man who has just asked another woman to marry him. Amanda Woods is a workaholic movie trailer producer in LA who breaks up with her boyfriend Ethan (Edward Burns) because he cheated on her with his secretary. When Amanda decides to go on vacation to get away from it all she finds Iris's advertisement for a home exchange. Iris lives in a tiny cottage in Surrey, outside of London, and Amanda lives in a huge LA mansion with a pool, and while the women are polar opposites in their life style they both share disappointing love lives.

After switching homes Amanda unexpectedly meets Graham (Jude Law), Iris's brother, who shows up drunk one night on the door step, a practice of his that keeps him from driving home drunk. After Iris's promise to Amanda that there were no men in her town she realizes Iris did not consider her own brother. Romance ensues and as usual complications arise as Graham starts to fall in love with Amanda, but Amanda is not sure that she can even fall in love the way other people do.

Iris also meets someone when Miles (Jack Black), a film score composer, shows up to pick up some of Ethan's belongings from Amanda's house. He befriends her, and through films and Amanda's neighbor Arthur Abbott (Eli Wallach), an old Hollywood screenwriter, grows close to her. These two men help her to realize that she is better than she thinks, and slowly she starts to feel better about herself and feel more than a fondness for Miles.

From there a simple story grows and I admit that some moments are less than stellar and may even be sort of cheesy, but the over all film is fun and gracious. For some it may be a little on the fairy tale side of romantic comedy, personally I want movies I don't have to take seriously, a little fluff never hurt anyone.

With seriously charming performances from the entire cast and the legendary Eli Wallach getting some of the best lines of the film Nancy Meyers has once again been able to charm audiences with the simple yet flawed characters she has so lovingly written for the screen. The Holiday is a must see for any fan of simple romance.

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