It's interesting how the same word in the same language can have different meanings, particularly when used by those in different countries. Take, for instance, the word "holiday." In America, it's a day of certain significance for which most people get off from work. In Britain, on the other hand, it's generally used to describe a vacation, as in (imagine your best British accent), "I'm going on holiday to America where the Yanks will be celebrating their 4th of July holiday").
Of course, both signify the same basic idea of having the time off to get away from the normal daily grind, be that work or, perhaps, some sort of relationship issues. Such is the case in "The Holiday" where an American woman and her British counterpart decide to swap houses for two weeks to break free from the men who've made their respective lives miserable of recent.
For Brit newspaper columnist Iris (Kate Winslet finally getting to loosen up a bit in a generally agreeable performance), her cad is a coworker played by Rufus Sewell. He's the kind who's somehow cast an invisible leash around her heart and occasionally gives it a good yank when he feels like it, meaning she can't ever move on despite him devastating her by becoming engaged to someone else.
Across the pond, Amanda (Cameron Diaz) is a successful businesswoman who runs her own movie trailer business and had decided to edit her cheating boyfriend (Edward Burns) out of her life. Like Iris, she needs to wash that man right out of her hair, so when the two "meet" via an online chat, they decide to swap their homes for a two-week break.
That results in a dual fish out of water tale where the Brit is overjoyed by "moving up" into Amanda's rich Hollywood world, while the American tries to adapt to Irish's quaint cottage (read "small," including its short but tall bathtub) and having to drive on the "wrong" side of the road.
Of course, the women end up doing what they didn't want to -- meeting other men. For Amanda, it's Jude Law's seemingly playboy character who happens to be Iris' brother with a penchant for drinking hard and crashing at her place when not literally and figuratively charming the pants off her. Iris ends up with two men, although not to the same lustful extent. One is an aged Hollywood veteran played by Eli Wallach (in a good performance), while the other is a movie composer (Jack Black) whose assistant is also his girlfriend.
And so the film constantly alternates between the two women's respective stories and new relationships, be they of the romantic or platonic variety. Like many a vacation, it take a bit for this film to settle into its rhythms and characters. Thus, while the beginning feels flat, the pic does end up growing on you, even if it's too long (an unnecessary 140-some minutes that easily could have been edited down to a more reasonable and pleasing running time) and goes through most every romantic comedy and drama cliché and convention you've seen in any number of previous films of this ilk.
That said, the extra time does seem to allow for a bit more character depth than is usually expected for a pic like this, including some unexpected developments that some viewers might view as contrived, while others will see it as adding profundity. The performances are generally good all around (although I could have done without Black being let loose for one scene to do his normal wild-eyed shtick -- otherwise he plays the character in a mostly reserved fashion), and there are some good bits of dialogue for all.
As directed by Nancy Meyers ("Something's Gotta Give," "What Women Want"), the film doesn't offer anything particularly new in terms of theme, characters or storyline, and it certainly could have benefited from an additional trip or two through the editing booth.
Yet, for what it is, it pretty much works, and in a mostly agreeable fashion that seems to get better and feel more comfortable in its skin as it works out its kinks and starts to relax, much like any good holiday should. "The Holiday" rates as a 5.5 out of 10.
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