THE HOLIDAY
MOVIE REVIEWS BY DAVE SMITH Nancy Meyers is known as "The Queen of the chick flick." She
is not known for writing very original screenplays and this one is not very original. Looking at The Holiday it is easy to see resemblances to such
films as Sleepless in Seattle,and When Harry Met Sally, both of which were written by Nora Ephron. Meyers
has had some success with films like Father of the Bride and Something's Gotta Give. However in those films she
had extremely accomplished actors like Steve Martin, Jack Nicholson and Diane Keaton. In this film she has Cameron Diaz, Jude
Law, Kate Winslet and Jack Black. Diaz can be good if she has a good director. In this one however, Meyers allows Diaz to "ham
it up" too much. Diaz resorts to a series of facial gymnastics rather than trying to act. Jude Law is only required to just
stand there and look sexy. Jack Black has the hardest job because he also must try to look sexy. Kate Winslet is by far the
best actor in this movie...unless you count 91 year old Eli Wallach. Wallach plays a retired screenwriter whose big claim to
fame is that he added the word "kid" to "Here's looking at you, kid." The film is filled with cliches. Diaz surprising Jude Law at
home and then saying, "Oh my God, you're not alone are you?" Then to top that cliche, it turns out his girlfriends are
his two little daughters. Of course this melts the heart of Diaz. There is the traditional ending cliche when Diaz
leaves Law, pulling away in a taxi. Then guess what? She commands the driver to, "Stop. Stop right now! Turn the
car around." When the driver says he can't, she opens the door and runs down the snow-covered lane in her high heels
back to the immensely sexy Jude Law. Surprise! To be truthful, however, this is a nice "feel good" movie and it comes
at a nice "feel good" time. It should do well at the box office...If a significant number of chicks are successful in dragging their
males into the movie house.
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