The best Christmas gift...predictability

Rating: 3/10 (10 December 2006)

Let me say this as a precursor for this semi-review; This is the first movie I have ever walked out of. That being said I would also like to say I have sat through some bad movies before i.e. The Grudge...ugh.
The movies premise is as original as the movie gets, and even that falls a little short. Amanda (Cameron Diaz), an American movie star living on the famous Sunset Blvd., has had a recent painful breakup with her ex and in order to try and get away from the idea of being alone on Christmas she does an exchange program with a quirky, British girl named Iris (Kate Winslet). While staying at each others respective houses, they meet and eventually fall for two complete strangers in classic chick-flick fashion.
The main problem with this film is that it lacks momentum, and in a chick-flick you need a lot of momentum to keep people going. This is it's fatal downfall. After an hour of being in the theater there had been little to no plot progression. No problem introduced, no relationships progressed. This is the furthest I got in this movie before I walked out.
Acting was mediocre at best, with little chemistry between either of the protagonists (I use that word lightly). I expected more from Jude Law and Cameron Diaz, but sadly they were not up to par. Sadly, Jack Black and Kate Winslet seem more like a side show than they do part of the story.
I give it a 3 out of 10.