Movie Review: The Holiday
Movie Review: The Holiday
“The Holiday” follows the broken romances of two women who trade places so they can heal from their heartache and in the process find love. The story may be familiar but the direction, writing and casting help to make this movie a different twist on your typical romantic comedy.
The movie focuses mainly on the relationship between Cameron Diaz’s and Jude Law’s characters. While there are some good scenes in this mix I think it would have been better to equally divide the time between Diaz’s and Law’s characters and Winslet’s and Black’s characters. Cameron Diaz is cast as she often is in romantic comedy but here it seems her acting is somewhat lacking overall. Jude Law, Kate Winslet, Jack Black and Eli Wallach are well cast and do a good job of bringing the story to life. Wallach is wonderful to watch in his scenes with Winslet. Law is particularly good in his role. It is nice to see him in this type of role showing he has a talent for comedy beyond his typical casting in dramatic roles. The unexpected surprise in the movie is Kate Winslet who is quite funny showing great comic timing. Winslet is one of the best dramatic actresses in film today. In the DVD special features she mentions in an interview that she wondered if she could do comedy. She can do comedy and she is one of the highlights of this movie. Jack Black as usual is charming and funny, fitting right in with the feel of the movie. I wish the scenes with Winslet and Black were expanded. There seemed to be a lack of romantic scenes with them and I think it underserved the movie overall. Just because Black is not your typical leading man doesn’t mean you shouldn’t treat him as one. Take Dustin Hoffman in “The Graduate” as an example of casting against type. The best actors are often actors known for comedy roles. As most actors will tell you, comedy is much harder to do than drama.
As light romantic comedies go this is a charming one and perfect for the holiday season.
2006. Written and directed by Nancy Meyers. Starring Kate Winslet, Jude Law, Cameron Diaz, Jack Black and Eli Wallach.
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