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By Andrea Thompson
Movies about Christmas and the holiday season in general tend to be a tough sell. It's a time of year that's predicated on giving, family togetherness, and cheer, and as one of my favorite pop culture characters once said...
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Most of us don't seem to want to acknowledge just how emotionally fraught the holidays can be for some. If you're estranged from your family, suffered a loss, are more of an introvert who's not fully comfortable with the continuous show of cheer the season demands, or honestly, even just single, Christmas and New Year's can be a constant, painful reminder of how well-adjusted and happy everyone else seems to be.
But the 2006 romantic comedy “The Holiday” not only gets it, it makes it the central premise. Or rather premises, since “The Holiday” gives you two rom-coms for the price of one while mostly doing justice to both. Reviewers didn't seem to agree, the main criticisms being that it was predictable and treacly. There's some truth to that, since there's never really much question of just where its central relationships are going or how they'll end. Then again, predictability is a component of many a film, and “The Holiday” isn't only an enjoyable one about the mess we can make of our love lives, it's a movie about movies as well as a tribute to the entire rom-com genre, fueled by the love writer-director Nancy Meyers clearly has for both. It's too sincere to be subversive though, and I mean that as a compliment.
Meyers was well on her way to establishing herself as a rom-com force to be reckoned with, having made “What Women Want” in 2000, and “Something's Gotta Give” in 2003, and “The Holiday” had another side effect. It solidified what has now become Meyers's trademark, that of plots which occur in chic spaces with impossibly immaculate kitchens. Much like the reviews, such criticisms of her work, one which rarely seems to stick to the men who make similar films, seems to miss the point of “The Holiday,” which actually makes not just the personal and professional differences between protagonists Iris (Kate Winslet) and Amanda (Cameron Diaz) part of the plot, but their economic ones as well.
Both women find themselves lovelorn and lonely for the holidays in perfectly symmetrical ways. Amanda is a workaholic whose relationship has just combusted, but instead of being the receiving end of a commitment-phobic guy, she is the one who is unable to get emotionally invested in any of the men she dates. She is also somewhat stunted, unable to even shed a tear after her boyfriend departs, despite her efforts. In contrast, Iris is still in love with her co-worker and ex Jasper (Rufus Sewell), despite the fact that they parted ways three years ago. Amanda may not be able to cry, but when Iris learns Jasper is engaged, she not only goes home and sobs uncontrollably, she even starts inhaling the gas in her stove, much to her shock. “Low point!” she exclaims.
The two women decide they need a change of scene, and agree online to swap houses for two weeks. Even if Iris is kind of solidly middle class with a quaint cottage in the English countryside, she's still flying to LA in a plane where she occupies a middle seat, while Amanda is ensconced in her own private area where she's free to not only stack up some books, but lie down. While Iris revels in the California sun and the luxury of her spacious, technologically advanced new digs, Amanda is quickly bored by the quiet remove of the cottage and books a flight out for the next day. Until, at least, this walks through her door...
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Sure, Jude Law had his issues...but I'm superficial. Oh yeah, he plays Graham, and he's there because he's Iris's brother looking to sleep off some alcoholic overindulgence. Whatever. While these two ridiculously attractive people waste little time physically connecting that very night, their connection of course has a time limit, since Amanda is leaving in two weeks. Iris has the much more interesting story, and not just because it takes a bit more time to develop. She not only has Jack Black as Miles, who utilizes the full force of his charm as a more unconventional romantic lead who has a tendency to pick the worst possible person for him, she gets to befriend screen legend Eli Wallach, whose character Arthur is a similarly renowned screenwriter who claims to have added “kid” to the iconic “Casablanca” line “Here's looking at you, kid.” Through him, Meyers comments on the state of a film industry still partially resisting the throes of monopolization Disney now embodies, and her love of classic films, which often featured indomitable female characters that all but vanished once Hollywood's Golden Era ended.
Iris also has a far darker connection with her ex Jasper, who exhibits the kind of gaslighting toxicity that is chillingly familiar. The fact that they work together at the same paper makes it complicated for Iris to extricate herself from him, but Jasper effortlessly oozes charms as the kind of so-called nice guy who is popular in the office. He's also a talented writer who is skilled at keeping Iris emotionally hooked while ensuring it's all about him, complimenting her professional skills and asking her to go over his pages. Because he respects her opinion of course. While we might be inclined to roll our eyes at the beginning of the movie, where Iris says she knows Jasper will never love her back but can't help loving him anyway, their subsequent interactions soon reveal everything about why she feels like she needs to literally flee the country in order to escape their dynamic.
Cameron Diaz might not get nearly as much to work with, but she gets to stretch her comedic muscles a bit when she stumbles her way to the cottage in heels, and her profession of cutting movie trailers is used to more playfully toy with rom-com tropes. Throughout, Amanda gets mocking commentary from...herself, as various trailers about her life play in her head at odd moments. Thankfully, her repression is also not summed up as a simple case of Overworked Woman In Need Of A Man Syndrome, but family dynamics. Amanda's family seemed to be close-knit and loving, right up until she found out her parents were getting divorced when she was 15. Afterwards, she found herself unable to cry. Amanda is using work to avoid love, and when she discovers that Graham is actually a widowed father to two girls, his reasons behind keeping his dating and family life separate sounds like he's using fatherhood much the same way.
Sure, we all know where this is going, but goddamn is it fun, even if you're not a cinephile. How many of us have used movies and pop culture to better understand our own lives? It'd be difficult to find someone who hasn't. So when Eli Wallach tells Iris she's a leading lady who's acting like a best friend, she replies, “I've been going to a therapist for three years, and she's never explained anything to me that well.” Iris doesn't just connect with a love interest in Miles, she forms a new friendship with Arthur, and his movie recommendations, all of which featuring complex female leads, probably play a role in Iris finally cutting Jasper out of her life. Her joy at the realization of her power and that she now has her whole life ahead of her is a genuine, well, joy to watch.
The happy ending, where both couples celebrate the new year in Iris's cottage with Graham's daughters, is rather jarring at first, since nearly everyone but Iris and Amanda have met each other in spite of the impact they've had on each other's lives. Their story may not have inspired much love at the time, but “The Holiday” only seems to have become more popular since as a beloved holiday staple.
