Movie Review: THE HOLIDAY
The Holiday (2006)–**
Every time I watch an old Hollywood film, I can’t help but think that we don’t have any auteurs of the romantic comedy anymore. It’s ironic in fact that a perfect example of this, director Nancy Meyers, makes so many references to the greats in her newest movie.
While watching Meyers’ The Holiday, the short shot I got the most pleasure out of was of Kate Winslet’s character watching Howard Hawk’s His Girl Friday. I got so excited I actually turned to my fiancée and told her, twice, the name of the film Winslet was watching. Unfortunately, Meyers’ film is too dense, too plotted and too happy to make it worth comparing with any classic rom-com.
Winselt plays Iris, a society columnist for an English paper who spends her life waiting for a coworker who won’t ever fall in love with her. When she’s watching “His Girl Friday,” she’s watching it in the L.A. home of movie advertising professional Amanda (Cameron Diaz). Iris escaped to L.A. to get away from the man she can’t stop loving, while Amanda escapes to Iris’ Surrey cottage to get over her cheating ex. The home exchange is the perfect getaway, especially when new love comes knocking at their doors.
For Winslet and Diaz, their new love comes by the way of leading men Jack Black and Jude Law, respectively. Neither actor is a romantic comedy leading man, nor is Winslet the type of actress who appears in a cookie cutter film like“The Holiday. Diaz isn’t the type of actress who is up for being taken seriously, unless seriously comes with a bikini like in “In Her Shoes.” Seeing these four in the same movie, was an oddly surreal experience, one that doesn’t even work in theory let alone in practice.
Meyers’ films are always marred by bad casting, but her other films had old-school superstardom with Diane Keaton, Jack Nicholson and Mel Gibson to rely on. In The Holiday, there isn’t a star who can command the screen and make this overlong film even appear watchable.
Now I know there are people out there who recognize the names in the film, but as far as star power goes, no one in this film is a bankable face. When Nancy Meyers writes about Cary Grant in the film or mentions Casablanca, it makes me wish that the actors in the film could achieve the presence of their Golden Age counterparts.
Really, that’s the best part of the film, the longing for a time when a superficial comedy could work on craft and star power alone. Unfortunately for Meyers, she’s making films at a time when star power is diminished and, as the 90-year-old screenwriter in her movie says, films have to make a buck in the first weekend or its over.
Of course, there is life on DVD (and TV). Meyers is more than competent enough to realize the realities of the modern movie business even as she pines for the status of a classical filmmaker. Unfortunately for her, she’s no Howard Hawks. She’s not even Richard Curtis. No classic film has anything near as trite as the mechanically happy ending that she lets conclude The Holiday. Even a Cary Grant couldn’t save the film from that.
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