As slick as a magazine supplement...and about as profound; nearly saved by Winslet's work

Rating: 3/10 (5 December 2008)

Nancy Meyers writes knowingly facile scripts, and then attempts to 'cute' them up with show-bizzy chatter and characters who can be described completely by their occupations: Newspaper Writer, Movie Advertising Boss, Book Editor, Film Composer. Meyers plugs in the gaps with nostalgic soundtrack choices and clean, glossy locations. She's living in a storybook. Kate Winslet's opening narration--a deduction of modern romance for the masses--is supposed to ring amusingly true (at least for the females in the audience); but instead, this montage of hit-or-miss romantic snippets is so sterile and Hollywoodized, it looks as though it were created by committee, by a TV group designing a commercial. Comedy about two women, a British writer and a show business denizen of Los Angeles, who switch houses over the Christmas holiday has nary a single joke that resonates with truth. It's about as real as a cartoon, and some of the performances (Cameron Diaz's in particular) are indeed cartoonish. Diaz gave some wonderful performances earlier in her career, but she seems to have lost touch with humanity (she and Meyers are living in the same neighborhood of La-La-Land). Only Kate Winslet's warmth and intrinsic intelligence manages to shine through, but her lovely presence cannot camouflage the fact this is artificial goods: phony, slack, unmoving, witless. *1/2 from ****