The Holiday

UK Release: 8th December 2006

Watched on DVD: Friday 11th May 2012

Rating: 12A

Genre: Comedy, Romance

Runtime: 2hrs 18mins

IMDb Plot Synopsis: In London, Iris Simpkins writes a wedding column in a newspaper and nurtures an unrequited love for her colleague Jasper Bloom. Near Christmas, she is informed that Jasper is engaged to marry another colleague, and her life turns upside down. In Los Angeles, the movie-trailers maker Amanda Woods has just split with her unfaithful boyfriend Ethan and wants to forget him. Through a house exchange website, Amanda impulsively swaps her mansion for Iris' cottage in Surrey for the holidays. While in Surrey, Amanda meets Iris' brother and book editor Graham and they fall in love with each other. Meanwhile, Iris meets her new next door neighbor the ninety year old screenplay writer Arthur, who helps her retrieve her self-esteem, and the film composer Miles, with whom she falls in love.

My Review: The Holiday is a geniunely good film. It’s not only a romantic comedy, as romantic and funny as it is but it is a finding-yourself-drama also as Cameron Diaz and Kate Winslet are both in need of a change in pace and so swap lives for 2 weeks and find love along the way. It is deliciously feel-good, helped tremendously by the fact that it’s set at Christmas time, and you can’t help but get swept up by it all. 

Often what happens by putting a lot of ‘stars’ in a film is that the characters all get lost but thankfully here four is the right amount you really do get to know each of them completely. It’s great as they’re four actors that I wouldn’t necessarily have put together but it works!

The Holiday has always been a fail-safe film in my book but it was lovely to go back to it after many years apart and discover that it was even better than I remembered. I made the mistake of starting the film late in the evening and looked up as the credits rolled to find it very late at night! Basically you can’t go wrong and it has something for everyone - plenty of heart, humour and warmth. 

Score: 8/10