The Holiday (2006)
A breezy story that revolves around two women, dealing with heartbreaks, who swap homes for a vacation and find an unexpected but pleasant turn of life.
Writer/Director – Nancy Meyers
Cast – Kate Winslet, Cameron Diaz, Jude Law, Jack Black, Elli Wallach, Rufus Sewell, Edward Burns
Plot
Irsi (Kate), a columnist in a newspaper, lives a quiet and lonely life mooning over a person who doesn’t love her back. She lives in a beautiful little fairytale-ish cottage in serene country side near London.
Amanda (Cameron) is a workaholic, successful film trailer maker, lives in a posh part of LA in beautiful high-end villa.
Both are quite diametrically opposite in terms of their nature and life except for the fact that they both are dealing with heartbreak which prompts them to seek out a faraway vacation.
They end up opting for a home exchange plan. Thats an interesting turn that gives them a chance experience a completely different life and setting.
Watch this beautiful drama to know what life has in store for them.
Analysis
Nancy Meyers begins the film with a fantastic music track (Hans Zimmer) and some pretty interesting pearls of wisdom about love.
Then we get introduced to our two leading ladies who are extremely adorable, super interesting and of course funny. There’s heartbreak but thankfully we don’t feel the pinch because we know those dolts don’t deserve our divas.
When the girls land up on foreign shores, we are right on board with them to experience the new and beautiful land. Their delight is pretty contagious I tell you.
The London setting is straight out of story book. Cosy, grey, snow, lots of Christmas-y feel and love in the air.
The LA setting is bright, sunny, windy, lavish and lots of good people and vibes.
Personally I found LA track more interesting than the London track. At times the Jude-Cameron track seemed repetitive and sagging. Of course that brings us to the fact that the film could certainly have been shorter than its length of much over 2 hours. This being my second movie by Nancy Meyers after The Intern, the expectations were understandably high. Well, its no Intern but offers plenty. So I guess we can take that in our stride.
The dialogues are fantastic, needless to say, offering chuckles and smiles through and through.
Kate Winslet is such a heart stealer with her casual girl charm. She’s always draws delight and admiration from me. Cameron looks super cute. Jude Law looks gorgeous. Every actor right from Elli Wallach, Jack Black, Rufus Sewell and Edward Burns is a pleasure on screen.
The movie is one of those feel good stories that take you to a world that promises more smiles than tears, where you can believe in the power of goodness and love and where there’s always a happy ending.