The Holiday Review

Reviews

Mar 26th 2007 By Total Film

The cinematic equivalent of chocolate, starry rom-com The Holiday is good for the occasional warm flush of the heart but lasts an unhealthy 130 minutes. Still, you can enjoy an unusually relaxed Jack Black performance; he plays the open-hearted Miles, who steers temporary house-swapee Iris (Kate Winslet) away from the Xmas blues and into cinematic dream territory. It’s one of the few surprises in a film that’s built around Hollywood stars doing what they do best – Winslet is winsome, while Cameron Diaz is endearingly kooky as LA bigshot Amanda, staying at Iris’ oh-so-picturesque cottage and on the receiving end of Jude Law’s charm. Shame, then, that The Holiday’s attempts at revelling in its own clichés (hammered home courtesy of Iris’ unlikely friendship with a legendary Hollywood screenwriter) don’t come off, leaving you wishing for the Lindsay Lohan/James Franco spoof actioner that Amanda’s been working on instead. Rubbish extras, too: just trailers.