♣ The Holiday
Wednesday 9 May 2007
In a dramatic twist from only reviewing things which I consider to be of a worthwhile standard, and shying away from the blockbusters so loved by the plebs of Britain, I have decided to write a review about The Holiday, a film which remarkably, was pretty much as bad as I hoped.
Now don't get me wrong, I'm not a serial rom-com hater. I still think Notting Hill is a truly top film, and Four Weddings and A Funeral would have been a master stroke were it not for that pice of rancid American arm candy Hugh Grant insists on dragging about the film. In fact, my only real grudge against those films would be that they spawned a whole host of quite dreadful films, and for that, they will always carry a black stain of shame with them in my mind. But enough of the rather pointless qualification of my review; I know a good film when I see one, so if you don't braodly agree with this then bully to you sir. Back to the buissiness of critiquing.
It starts off not great. In what has to be the most contrived start to a film I have ever seen, after two women are both heart broken by their respective men, they seek solace, some time away, to gather their thoughts. Remarkably, Amanda from LA (Cameron Diaz) finds a charming little cottage in Sussex, and contacts the owner, the equally man-hating Iris (Kate Winslet). They swap houses, and wham, Bob's your uncle, and we are on the plot treadmill, although not at great speed or much a gradient. There is an inevitable slew of cheap laughs as we find the cosmopolitan Amanda struggling to cope with cold British winter-time in her stilleto's, slipping on ice, having snow fall on her head from low hanging pine branches, and although it's far from brain surgery, nothing is really wrong with the film at this point. (Mark Kermode, easily my favourite critic makes the startlingly accurate but nonetheless hilarious criticism that the English town has less resemblance to a provincial sleepy retreat than to Narnia) On the opposite end, the audience get a host of slapstick giggles as Winslet runs about the house making throaty noises from time to time and rubbing her hands, subtly showing us she is not used to such decadent surroundings. Sadly, her running about the house serves mainly to remind us of Risky Buissness, and how Tom Cruise, even without having the sensual advantage of breasts, still made spontaneous house-running cooler. Is at this point, when we see the two displaced women side by side that things soured for me. It feels so old, this dual reality, seperate lives thing, and in fact, it's extremely similiar to Diaz's own Sliding Doors, which if I might add, was a far better film.
Well, the inevitable happens; as Amanda packs up her things to leave, she meets Iris' brother Graham, who pops in, unaware that the two have traded places. (Incidentally, in a rather revolting act of stereotype, the three major British charachters are called Iris, Graham and Jasper. Presumably the producers simply looked at what names appeared most in the Kensington census and used those). They fall in love, it's great.
On the other side of the pond, Iris doesn't fall in love straight away, and respect to the film for at least making some effort to a) address something other than 'break-up make-up' and b) not mirror each girls experiences exactly. Instead through an act of kindness she meets an old man named Arthur Abbott. She helps him through a number of things, eventually leading to his making good on accepting a prestigious award, which lends the film a nice cute factor. Over a much slower timeline, she also starts to fall in love with Miles (jack Black) Inevitably, both couples fall in love, despite hiccups (paticualrly look out for how accepting Diaz' charachter is of the two children she takes on by courting Graham - obviously a big fan of realism in film).
Miles: [Miles reaches over to grab something on the counter, his arm grazing Iris's chest] Okay, sorry about that. Boob graze.
[both Miles & Iris laughing]
Miles: That was accidental. Accidental boob graze. I'm sorry.
Iris: Changing subject.
Miles: Okay.
Which leads us to the charachters. Cameron Diaz is still quite annoying, but plays her role well enough; a little less slapstick and a little more humanity might have gone down well though. Jude Law does a good job, but then, he doesn't really have to do much, just look good and talk in a cheeky chappy accent. Kate Winslet for me is the most disappointing. We know she can act, and at times in The Holiday it looks like she is going to decide to, but unfortunately these spells are intermittent. As often as she will have a real, honest dialogue with someone, she ruins it with another scene. When Jasper comes round to LA to see her, there are a serious of paticualrly poor scenes; Winslet running around shouting with happiness about the house after liberating herself from her former object of affection's grasp in a ludicrously camp way. Black though is to be commended. His performance is a fantastic mix, warm and emotive at times, yet still with enough banter and comedy to ensure he leaves a suitable mark in the laughter reel. Certainly the star of the show.
Overall, the Holiday is not a great film. The beginning and ending are remarkable in how forced they feel, and though Winslet's acting is controlled and charming at times, Black is consistently capable, with a great mix of comedy and seriousness. Unfortunately, the fact that Jude Law and Cameron Diaz seem so very comfortable in these roles, to the extent that they seem to play themselves in parts of the film, and the fact that the script is really nothing special at all means it's no grand slam. If you do need a holiday romance, go for Love Actually. Alright, it's cliched, but it's well produced, generally better acted, and the multiple story threads are intriguing. Otherwise, I'm not sure why you would pick it up. Fun to an extent, but unremarkable.
Starman gives it a lunar lovely score of 2 1/2 sun flares
Labels: film
posted by danny @ 14:20,
2 Comments:
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At 9 May 2007 at 15:02,
Unknown said...
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I like to think it is:
Muppet Movie
A Muppet's Christmas Carol
Muppets in Space.
Muppets take Manhatten was frankly a disappointment...I don't count that one. -
At 9 May 2007 at 15:11,
Unknown said...
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And Tim Curry!
I hang my head in shame....
