You'll need a holiday after seeing this...

Rating: 1/10 (7 December 2006)

This film was the equivalent of being handed a nicely wrapped gift, only to find a hideous jumper inside. The only good thing about this movie was I got to spend over two hours sitting down in a dark room.
The only person who didn't seem embarrassed to be in the film was Kate Winslet, who gave it her all - it's a pity her scenes were mostly schmaltz. Jack Black loses 'cool points' for turning up, and Jude Law takes his Michael Caine obsession one step closer (what was with those glasses???). As for Cameron Diaz... Winslet acted her off the screen.
The problem with this film is the director/writer, Nancy Meyers. Her script was jam-packed with every rom-com cliché in the book; it's attempts at humour had a whiff of desperation about it, and parts of the script didn't even make sense: Note: When the driver who drops Diaz off at the start of the film says "I'll have to drop you hear, I can't drive any further, I can't turn the car around" etc... Later, the film shows 2 scenes where a car is parked outside Diaz's cottage.
I've never seen a film with so many blatant plot-holes: Jude Law's children apparently have a mobile phone each - probably because he's never at home to look after them. The writing was incredibly lazy and just plain bad: I know these types of films are never supposed to be taken as 'reality', but this film took the entire cake and ate it.
As for the 'surprise cameo' in the video shop - WHY?????? The film desperately wants to be regarded as a 'future classic', but it was just so dull, not funny and contrived.