by Sarah Arboleda

Created on: December 28, 2009   Last Updated: December 29, 2009

I really don’t go to a lot of what the movie industry terms “chick flicks” for the simple reason that I dislike the idea that somehow the entire film is going to be about sad, desperate women running from spinsterhood into the arms of whomever happens to round the corner when they’re drunk or sad. At the age of 21, I’d like a little more optimism than that. While I have enjoyed a handful of movies that follow this format – When Harry Met Sally, Love Actually, Bridget Jones’ Diary – for the most part, I try to avoid them.

With that said, when I saw Kate Winslet’s name across the poster for The Holiday, I naturally assumed that my favorite actress, a perpetual Oscar nominee, could not have signed up for some silly popcorn film unless it was good. So I threw down my ten dollars, and within ten minutes was in hell. I had hoped this movie would die from people’s minds quickly, given that it didn’t really offer anything new to an already tired genre, but I was horrified to see both “Peach Tree TV” and “W” playing the movie on a near-constant loop this holiday season, re-igniting my fury.

Since it pains me to speak ill of Winslet, I’ll start with her co-star Cameron Diaz. Diaz’s character, Amanda, suspects that her boyfriend has cheated on her because he was out until three in the morning with his young secretary supposedly finishing up some work. Amanda is a successful movie trailer director who lives in an enormous house in California, is beautiful and is physically fit. She is able to throw out her philandering boyfriend with ease, but he tells her that because she doesn’t cry over their break-up, there must be something wrong with her.

Oh, of course. She’s rich, beautiful, sexy and successful but because she isn’t downing a pint of ice cream, sobbing and making wise-cracks about her vibrator the minute she throws him out, she’s an inhuman ice queen? Naturally, this wise man’s comments send Amanda into a tailspin – she needs to get away for Christmas because there is something wrong with her.

Moving back to Winslet, we have a fairly similar story. Winslet’s character Iris is a talented writer working in London, being overlooked at her job and tread upon by her former flame, the ludicrously-named Jasper. She keeps hoping that Jasper’s constant reliance on her (read: he uses her as a ghost writer and free editor and

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