Film
The Holiday
- Director
- Nancy Meyers
- Certificate
- 12A
- Running Time
- 135 mins
Love, Actually meets House Swap in this festive screwball romcom with Kate Winslet as a Telegraph hackette with a messy love life who exchanges houses with Hollywood career women Cameron Diaz for Christmas. Both are looking to escape men problems, and inevitably each finds romance knocking on the door. For uptight Cameron, it’s Kate’s charmer brother Jude Law, an apparent womaniser who turns up drunk and gets an unexpected night cap; for Kate, it’s Jack Black, a sweetly sensitive film musician currently dating a superficial actress.
Despite overdoing leaping-in-the-air exuberance, Winslet’s comedic side makes a welcome return, Diaz’s ditz routine gets an amiable workout, Law’s not as smug as usual and, while he could still tone down ‘wacky’, a low-key Black proves that, when not eating camera, he can still be quite endearing. It’s overlong, predictable and cornily sentimental (wait for the two cute moppets) while writer/director Nancy Meyers’ industry whinges feel incongruous. But there’s undeniably much oestrogen-friendly enjoyment to be had.
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