take a HOLIDAY???

Every so often, a romantic comedy will come along and capture a world and a relationship that will melt your heart and take you to a magical place. Nancy Meyer’s THE HOLIDAY is NOT that movie. This movie is one of the most ridiculous excuses for a film that I have seen all year.
I will start with the reason that I saw the film in the first place (if you are wondering)… the cast. The pairing of Kate Winslett, Jack Black, Jude Law and Cameron Diaz was worth me risking the $10 to check out this cheese fest. I never thought I would say this, but I actually lost some respect for Winslett in this film. For the first time in her career, she is not good. While it is the script that ultimately fails her, she was wondering lost for the majority of the film. Black, who I am a big fan of, was just plain terrible here. He plays a film composer and it seems, in this film, that he not only knows what a composer does, but how a human being acts. There was even a point in the film where he does the patented Jack Black singing scene… my eyes rolled so far back in my head it caused me actual pain. Then, about 30 minutes later, he did it again. Terrible.
Diaz has some cute moments, but was bland and false. Her character plays the owner of a trailer company and it this world, she only needs two employees, and this company earns her enough to be a multi millionaire. There is nothing resembling a real reaction to anything that happens to her in this film. When she comes to England and is lost and alone, how does she finally relax and have fun? She blasts The Killer’s Mister Brightside and dances around the house like a fool. I like the song, but this scene was as forced as forced can possibly get. Jude Law was the only performance that I felt overcame the script to rough in a real character. That is about as much praise that I will give to this film. I actually believed a few of the things that he did.
Now on to the writer/director Nancy Meyers…
Put as simply as I can. She is a terrible director and a pathetic writer. I would ask why she is allowed to keep making movies, but I know that her last two films (WHAT WOMEN WANT and SOMETHING’S GOTTA GIVE) made tons of money. While I didn’t like either of those, THE HOLIDAY is far worse. If you are saying that this is a “chick flick” and that is why I didn’t like it, you are just plain wrong. The situations, the reactions and the dialogue are really some of the worst that I have seen. This is like bad television in its execution. It feels forced, fake and is just pathetically bland. It tries so hard to be cute and clever, using film language to explain situations, but it is just a sad attempt at storytelling.
This movie looks like a bad sitcom. It is flat, boring and sucks out whatever energy the scene might have. Meyers has a reputation of doing a ridiculous amount of takes (60 or more per shot) and I have never seen it more evident than in this film. Everyone seems tired and bored with what they are doing. If you are in the mood for a romantic comedy with an utter lack of either romance or a shred of comedy, than THE HOLIDAY is for you. For anyone else, I would recommend renting a good romantic comedy like WHEN HARRY MET SALLY, IT HAPPENED LAST NIGHT, SLEEPLESS IN SEATTLE, FOUR WEDDINGS AND A FUNERAL, or NOTTING HILL.