Movie Review: The Holiday

Well, I decided to spend my Sunday afternoon at the cinema watching a movie. I was contemplating whether to watch The Holiday or Epic Movie. The Holiday has a story while Epic Movie is simply funny and may get me laughing uncontrollably. The Holiday won in the end.

Kate Winslet looked older since I last saw her in Titanic. I think she is an amazing and beautiful actress. In the beginning of the show, she/Iris, a journalist, was narrating about her life and how she was not successful in the love area. She is crazily in love with Jasper Bloom, whom I think is a useless guy who is playing with her feelings. When he talked to her, he made her think as though he really cares for her. But all of a sudden, his engagement to another colleague was announced. Poor Iris was so upset and broke down noisily at home. It is heart breaking to have someone dumped you to marry another but it was funny the way she went in her cottage, closed the door, and howled.

The other lady character, Amanda (Cameron Diaz), a movie trailer editor from Los Angeles, has a boyfriend who slept with someone else. She is a workaholic and has trouble crying. Yeah, she has not cried since she was 15 when her parents broke up. She tried to cry after throwing her guy out but did not succeed. After all the unsuccessful attempts at crying, she went online to look for a good place to go for a holiday.

She found Iris’ cottage, which was on the Internet, and IM-ed Iris, asking if she was interested in renting her home. Iris then had a brilliant idea to switch houses, cars, everything! Amanda thought the idea was perfect and so the next day, each ended up at the other person’s doorstep.

Graham (Jude Law), Iris’ brother came to her home, drunk and Amanda let him in. There was instant attraction between them and they had sex. It was so simple. Jude Law was totally dashing in this movie. It’s not surprising for Amanda to fall for him so easily!

In L.A., Iris met Miles (Jack Black), a movie composer who was also having some sort of problem with his girlfriend. I think Jack Black’s role in this film was quite minimal. His screen appearances were fewer if compared to Jude Law’s. Well, he was funny but I wish he had acted goofier. Like in School of Rock. But I guess his character in this Holiday movie required him to be more serious.

This romantic comedy movie was okay but I don’t think it was very funny. I thought Iris’ imitation at playing rock guitar and Amanda’s crazy dancing to The Killer’s Mr. Brightside were pathetic. Anyway, the characters were well acted out, the story was wonderful and I would definitely watch it again!