I’ve watched a few Christmas movies over the festive season, including this corny but charming 2006 romantic comedy about two women swapping homes and lives.
I had no interest whatsoever in this movie when it was first released, and I certainly didn’t expect it to become a holiday staple that pops up regularly on Christmas-themed streaming lists, and even got a Live in Concert treatment in Melbourne recently. But things change, as they do. These days, I sometimes feel nostalgic about the kind of movie Hollywood never really makes anymore, a mainstream mid-budget romantic comedy with gorgeous movie stars, and I’m way more forgiving to their silly plots and generous coatings of sugar.
As far as I know, this was Kate Winslet’s one and only foray into traditional rom-com, where her acting orbit improbably crossed paths with the one of Cameron Diaz. In retrospect, this unlikely pairing of two actresses with wildly different careers and filmographies is one of the movie’s main strengths, even if they almost never get to actually share the screen.
Winslet is Iris, a journalist for the Daily Telegraph in London, a shy wallflower still pining for her co-worker and former lover. Jasper is a Tall, Dark and Handsome Man played by Rufus Sewell, which is how you know instantly that he’s bad news. Over in California, Diaz is Amanda, owner of a booming movie trailer making business who just broke up with her own cheating Bad Man (Ed Burns). Needing a break from their toxic and exhausting love lives, the two women end up meeting on the internet and arrange to swap houses for the festive season. Iris moves into Amanda’s glamorous sun-kissed Beverley Hills mansion, while Amanda sets off for a tiny cozy cottage somewhere in Surrey.
I know which house I’d prefer to spend my holiday at (not the one without proper heating in the middle of English winter, however adorable and quaint), but Amanda is dead set on alone time and avoiding men at all cost. Almost instantly, Iris’ older brother Graham shows up drunk at the cottage in the middle of the night. He’s played by Jude Law still at the peak of his beauty, so you know where this one is going, even if Graham has some surprises up his sleeve.
Kate Winslet gets a poorer deal in comparison, paired up with miscast Jack Black who just teeters on the edge of being supremely annoying, and goes right over the cliff during Miles’ grating monologue at the video rental where he shows off his knowledge of film scores (I did chuckle at his knowing tribute to Hans Zimmer’s theme for Driving Miss Daisy, considering that Zimmer also composed the score for The Holiday). Wisely, the movie spends more time on Iris’ legitimately lovely and touching friendship with Arthur (Eli Wallach), her elderly neighbour and legendary screenwriter turned recluse. Through Arthur, Iris gets an education in Old Hollywood movies and is inspired by its tough dames to finally stand up for herself.
Yes the movie is pure spun sugar and its various setups (Amanda is incapable of crying!) all resolve in entirely predictable ways, but then chiding a Christmas movie for being predictable is like criticising a cashmere sweater for being warm and fluffy. If you’re after an escapist fantasy with a star-studded cast, the movie absolutely delivers, and I liked its unexpected quirky touches like Amanda periodically thinking about her life as if it was a movie trailer. I think I’ll happily rewatch The Holiday when the next festive season comes along.
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