The Holiday
by Nancy Meyers
Columbia Pictures
Carrie: This came just in time as I have a cold and am supposed to sit on the couch. Now can I sit on the couch and growl “I’m WORKING” at passers by. But I’m also super cranky so I should feel more sympathy for poor Iris and Amanda instead of wanting to throw kleenex at them.
Elyse: I’m probably viewing this through my own professional lens, but I have a hard time believing that Amanda can take 2 weeks off consecutively without tanking her career as a woman in a male-dominated industry. Shit, I can barely take off five days in a row.
Also Cameron Diaz does this weird physical over-acting thing that really bugs me.
RHG: Everyone looks so squishy-faced and young!
Cameron Diaz’s smile is really one of the great ones.
Oh, Iris. I actually do know the feeling of seeing the dude you have a total crush on getting engaged to someone else. But at least I didn’t spend three years pining for him.
Also Rufus Sewell, though I do love him, is almost always The Guy in Don’t Fuck That Guy (Shakespeare Retold’s Taming of the Shrew is an exception – but not until the end).
Elyse: Also I would totally trust my house to a total stranger, but never my dog. NEVER MY DOG. I barely trust Dewey to a cat-sitter I’ve known forever.
RHG: …while I shouldn’t be pro-punching people in the nose, I’m kinda pro punching Ethan in the nose.
Rosehill Cottage looks adorable and I would stay there for a bit. But just a bit because I do not vacation to relax.
Elyse: I want to knit Amanda’s cabled white sweater.
I just realized that back in ‘06 I basically strived for Amanda’s look, including the blonde highlighted bob. Heels. Sweaters. The whole deal. That bob was a killer every morning too.
RHG: BAN MEN: THE VACATION
“How do I reach you?” YOU DO NOT ASSWIPE. IRIS, YOU KNOW YOU SHOULD NOT FUCK THAT GUY.
Elyse: Foreplay is never overrated. Foreplay is where it’s at.
RHG: (Guys I have wine)
“I’m thinking we should have sex. If you want.” Consent is important!
(Sorry I was drinking)
Elyse: Jude Law is not my cup of tea at all, but I will admit, I swooned a little bit when he put on glasses. What is it with men in glasses?
Then he talked about never calling after a date and my swoon died. Hard.
Ugh.
RHG: “I CAN’T BELIEVE YOU HAD SEX WITH THE WOMAN STAYING IN MY HOUSE” Not only that, Iris, but your brother banged Amanda IN YOUR BED but you haven’t gotten there yet. You’re gonna be real mad when you do the math on that.
Remember when you could wander into a movie store and just browse? Also if you’re into movie scores, there’s an excellent documentary about movie music called Score and you should check it out.
Elyse: NO JASPER IT’S NOT OKAY THAT YOU’RE CALLING HER. DID YOU NOT UNDERSTAND THE ‘LEAVE ME THE FUCK ALONE’ EMAIL? YOU’RE THE ACTUAL WORST.
RHG: I do like Iris and Miles together, I just wish they had gotten some more time to let their relationship breathe a bit.
Elyse: I agree with RHG about Rufus Sewell except I felt bad for him in Tristan + Isolde.
Carrie: Things I wanted more of:
- The dog
- Female friendship – how I wish they had been emailing each other the whole time and giving each other terrible advice
- Craft. What makes a trailer a good trailer? How does music change a scene? Let’s have some shop talk! I love shop talk!
I liked it that the minute Cameron Diaz sees the kids she snaps into “kids come first” mode and protects them from any drama between her and the Jude Law guy. In that moment she’s a better parent than he is even though on the whole he’s a great single dad. Dude, guys who sew are hot, stop worrying about it.
RHG: Having the object of your affection show up on the doorstep and great you with a big ol’ kiss is so perfectly, you know, ROMCOM and warm and fuzzy.
Amanda playing out all of the very bad ways in which this relationship will play out is…well that’s me. But I’ve never had a Jude Law type who can snap me out of it. Someone find me a Jude Law type – dishy accent preferred, hold the douchey tendencies.
IRIS DO NOT FUCK THAT GUY. HE IS BAD FOR YOU AND YOUR IRIS-PARTS. HE MAKES YOUR HEART SAD. Remember what Miles said: he never goes away, so you can’t ever forget him and get over him, and you always keep giving him the attention he wants and it’s great for him and HE IS AN ASSHOLE. And he’s just saying “hey I’m very confused” so he can keep you on the hook.
Carrie: Things I wanted less of:
- Jude Law, because he is gross. Not the character, the actor. I can’t feel romantic about a man who had an affair with his family’s nanny. His performance was fine and the character is fine but I can’t get past the actor.
- Drunk driving. Seems like every other scene involved me horrified at the state people were in while getting into a car.
- The idea that the Santa Ana is a romantic and liberating force. That’s not what it’s famous for, OK? It’s famous for being extremely hot and causing horrible wildfires not to mention causing people to lose control of themselves from how annoying it is. People don’t say “Oooh! Anything is possible! Let’s eat outside!” People are more apt to say things like, “I know we’ve been happily married for 20 years but suddenly I feel a deep need to kill you with my bare hands because of the way you lick stamps.”
I LOVED the theme that romantic fiction can inspire someone and give them “gumption.” Well played, Arthur.
I give it a B-.
RHG: I love how fuzzy and happy this movie is. Yes, there’s a bunch of logistics to work out with these kids and their geographical challenges. Maybe it’s a happy for now, but they are HAPPY, each with a person who appreciates them. And three people have found the gumption to walk away from toxic relationships and learned how to not be so dependent on another person, so that’s good.
It’s not a perfect movie, so I’d give it a B on the merits. But it makes me happy, so I’m calling it a B+.
Elyse: Honestly, while I really liked the romances in this movie, I would just watch two hours of Iris and Arthur hanging out. I was pretty much as invested in their friendship as I was in the romance plotlines.
What did you think of The Holiday? Do you agree with our relationship assessments? Let us know!
I love the Holiday. But I’ve loved it for long enough I’m not sure if my love for it is rational. My love for Iris and Arthur is 100 percent rational though. Arthur is made of snark and awesome, and Iris is a sweetheart.
I like the movie, and it is the only time i’ve found Jack Black tolerable. I adored the women loved Arthur, but couldn’t stomach Jude Law for obvi reasons. It’s sweet and happy, but there is much to overlook.
I love this movie! One of the sexiest scenes I have seen in a movie is when Graham pushes Amanda’s hair back & starts to drop little kisses on her face. Gah! Love it! And I adore Iris & Miles’ scene in the video store & the storyline for Arthur is perfect. I love the Hannukah party scene. One of my seasonal favorites!
Weirdly enough, this weekend ended up being a Jack Black mini-festival as “School of Rock” (also charming) was the selection for a family get-together.
Thanks to SBTB for introducing me to a really fun movie! I agreed with other comments that I enjoyed Iris’s plot more than Amanda’s–partly because of the Arthur factor–Amanda really didn’t interact with anyone other than Graham until she met the girls at the end–but also it was fun to watch Iris enjoying herself so thoroughly. I had seen Amanda’s “high-powered woman/fish out of water” plot quite often before. Plus, it’s hard for Jude Law/Cameron Diaz to compete in terms of acting with Kate Winslet/Eli Wallach/Rufus Sewell (with Jack Black mostly getting out of the way). Rufus Sewell manages to be a compulsively watchable Nazi on “Man in the High Castle” so it didn’t surprise me how much he did with his small part here.
I’ve only seen this movie once, on TV, a long time ago. I remember thinking it was Very Cute though. It needs a re-watch!
Not a big fan. Cameron Diaz is a horrible actor, which makes it hard for me to watch her side of the story. I also think it’s shabby that Cameron Diaz hangs out with Jude Law and his plot moppets, while Kate Winslet is stuck with Jack Black. 😉
I like this movie, but would have been happier with more of Iris and Arthur and Miles. I just don’t love Cameron Diaz and I think the running time was unfairly heavy on her side.
My husband, however, LOVES this movie. It brings out all of his mushy tendencies.
This is one of those situations where I need an Anne’s Supercuts version with no smarmy Jude Law. He is just ew. However, to give credit where it’s due, he’s perfect for his role as smarm-meister general in Spy – I mean, he hardly has to act at all, really – and I get the bonus of snarking at his crap American accent.
Ooh, can we do a Movie Matinee for Spy? I suppose it’s not technically romance, but the heroine does go from overlooked to Desired By All, and there are some great female friendship moments. Uteruses before duderuses indeed. I would love to watch it with the Bitchery, just to hear everyone’s take on the trope-twists.
Meanwhile, I’ll take the lovely cottage, thank you, and I have a huge soft spot for Jack Black as the unconventional romantic hero. I would watch the heck out of a sequel where he makes Iris laugh by Americanning his way through Britain, like drinking Ribena without knowing it’s meant to be diluted, or insisting on chips with every meal because they really are just the best, or a hilarious montage of linguistic misunderstandings regarding just what article of clothing is meant by the word “pants”. Please make me this movie, world!
Iris’ whole storyline is more my cup of tea than Amanda’s. I like the unconventional romantic hero in Miles (I always prefer the beta heroes to the alpha ones) and then there’s the great “old Hollywood glamor” storyline with Arthur.
“Love Actually” is my fav holiday romcom, and I think that’s why I love Iris’ story more–just like that film, Iris’ story features different kinds of love (love between friends, romantic love, etc.)
And where can I sign up to get a chance to spend a week in Iris’ cottage?
This is one of my comfort films.
My only complaint is that I would have preferred it as two movies. One for Amanda, so that there is some shop talk on making trailers and adapting to the English countryside and that there would be time to flesh out the plot moppets.
And that means that there would be an Iris movie, which means more Arthur and Iris, more moments of Iris reasserting herself and more depth to the Iris and Miles relationship. Wouldn’t change a single thing of these scenes, I just want MORE of it.
Hah! I just watched this yesterday as part of “52 films by women” challenge (Nancy Meyers ftw!).
I definitely lean more towards the Iris, Miles, and Arthur plotline. It was so nice to see Kate Winslet do a lighter role and watch her character open up. I, had no problem with Jack Black as the love interest, although Winslet and Wallach can act rings around him.
Cameron Diaz had more of a thankless cliche role, the type A career woman who needs to let go and how to love. Nothing wrong with a more “archetype” role, but her storyline needed to be more well thought out. I felt like a lot of things happened in her story because it would be “cute” and not because it made sense. Also I found the obviously fake snow and fake “cold” annoying.
I try to watch this movie every year during the holiday season. Personally, I enjoy the Iris and Miles romance more than Amanda and Graham’s. They are genuine with each other and make each other laugh. Relationship-wise, Iris and Arthur for the win. They’re adorable and they build each other up in ways they each desperately need.
I knew I’d seen this movie but couldn’t remember it so I went on Amazon Prime and luckily it was there free for prime members.
I agree that the LA sections of the movie is really better partly because Kate Winslet and Eli Wallach can REALLY act plus who among us wouldn’t like to spend 2 weeks in that beautiful house in LA–groundskeeper, housekeeper, pool, etc.–and get to know an insider from Hollywood’s golden years.
Carmen Diaz does tend to overact but this whole movie is pretty broad comedy. Winslet does her own bit of overacting. Only Wallach seems to play it straight. And, Black’s hamming is more restrained than usual. Fun movie but I spent the rest of the day trying to figure out how their lives would work. Collaborating on trailers long distance might work for Amanda but Iris would have to quit her job, move to a much less swank apartment in LA to pursue her relationship. Sigh! Real life intrudes.
I always thought I was alone in preferring the Iris storyline to the Amanda one. I could have happily watched an entire movie of Iris, Miles, Arthur, and Arthur’s friends. With a short scene at the end with her nieces, because they were super adorable. That said, I love this movie, despite its flaws (Jude Law. Drinking while driving. Horrible sense of geography.).
It’s so nice to realize I’m not alone in disliking Cameron Diaz too!
I watched this movie for the first time last week – thank you for picking it as this month’s selection!
I seem to be in the minority here – I really like Cameron Diaz in this move and in others. Yes, there was some overacting at times, but her smile seems so authentic that when she flashes it, I am willing to forgive her anything.
My very favourite character though was Arthur. I would have loved a movie where he is the star and the other characters just come and go. Probably not a romantic comedy, but it would be a lovely film to watch.
And if anyone sees Iris’ cottage on a rental site, let me know – I’d be there in a heartbeat!
The sweater is my favorite part. I’ve never made it, but I have hope that maybe, one day. https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/fireside-sweater
I was just looking up Eli Wallach’s biography to see what roles he was most famous for and discovered that he was married to his wife for 66 years (she survived him.) A little real-life romance…
I still love this movie.
Disappointed. I thought this would be about the movie of the same name with Katherine Hepburn and Cary Grant.
I’m so glad you covered this!!! I really like this film, but I have a horrible confession to make – I fast forward through the whole Diaz/Law plot. I also can’t get past Jude Law the actor and I find I like the Iris/Miles relationship so much more – a preference more than anything. They are so sweet, funny, self-depricating and kind with one another as they are nursing their broken hearts and I wish they would have been given more screen time, my conspiracy theory being that Miles isn’t conventionally handsome, so they don’t get to make out or any of that fun stuff, which is too bad because Miles is a very crush worthy character. Also, Iris’s friendship with the kind screenwriter next door – that friendship is my heart. It always makes me cry the best kind of tears. Thanks for the revisit!
Along with Love Actually and Fred Claus (yes really), this is one of my favorite Christmas films! I waited a few days before commenting because I was sure someone else would mention Mr. Napkin Head. My favorite scene in the movie!