Good romantic comedy

Rating: 8/10 (10 December 2006)

The Holiday is an entertaining romantic comedy. It's about four affluent thirtysomethings who have been unlucky in love. The characters are charming and likable. It could have been made in the 1930s but the best comedies in those days had sharper dialog, better acting and a little more polish.
Iris (Kate Winslet) is a reporter working for a London newspaper. She is in love with a fellow journalist (Rufus Sewell) and has conducted and on-off relationship. When Jasper announces his engagement to someone else she realizes she has been used. Amanda (Cameron Diaz) is a successful, workaholic movie-trailer producer who lives in LA. She discovers that her live-in lover (Edward Burns) has been unfaithful and she promptly kicks him out of the house. Iris and Amanda, who have never met, decide they need a change of country and exchange homes over Christmas.
Iris moves into Amanda's luxurious mansion in LA as Amanda occupies Iris's tiny cottage in snowy England. Iris falls for Hollywood composer Miles (Jack Black). Amanda has a relationship with Iris's book editor brother Graham (Jude Law). The men are kind, sensitive and have the potential to be perfect movie husbands. It's a fairly predictable feel good movie, but I enjoyed it.