Charming and Delightful Homage to Love

Rating: 8/10 (30 September 2007)

In London, Iris Simpkins (Kate Winslet) write a wedding column in a newspaper and has an unrequited love for her colleague Jasper Bloom (Rufus Sewell). Nearby Christmas, she is informed that Jasper is engaged and will marry another colleague, and her life turns head over heels. In Los Angeles, the movie-trailers maker Amanda Woods (Cameron Dias) has just broken with her unfaithful boyfriend Ethan (Edward Burns) and wants to forget him. Amanda access a house exchange website, and impulsively swaps her mansion for Iris' cottage in Surrey for the holiday along the next two weeks. While in Surrey, Amanda meets Iris' widow brother and book editor Graham (Jude Law) and they fall in love for each other. Meanwhile Iris meet her next door neighbor, the ninety year old screenplay writer Arthur (Eli Wallach), who helps her to retrieve her self-esteem, and the film composer Miles (Jack Black), and they fall in love for each other.
"The Holiday" is a charming and delightful homage to love, and also to the romantic movies of the Golden Age of Hollywood. Nancy Meyers is great in the romantic comedy genre, and this movie is not an exception. Kate Winslet and Cameron Dias are extremely charming and gorgeous in their roles, as well as Jude Law, but the excellent comedian Jack Black is miscast as romantic pair of Kate Winslet. In the end, this predictable film is a great entertainment. My vote is seven.
Title (Brazil): "O Amor Não Tira Férias" ("The Love Does Not Take Vacation")