Big question: did I miss some gigantic special effects?

Rating: 6/10 (22 March 2009)

I don't understand how a film of this nature could cost $85 million. Certainly no one expected to make money with it costing so much. At a normal budget of, say, 20 or 30 million, it would have made quite a bit.
Cameron Diaz and Kate Winslet play two depressed, lovelorn women who switch homes for the Christmas holiday, Diaz leaving her Los Angeles mansion for a small fairy-tale like English house and Winslet trading the English chill for a big LA lifestyle. Diaz and her live-in boyfriend have just split, and Winslet is escaping from her great love, her boss, who just announced his engagement. Both are in for surprises.
"The Holiday" has a lot of warmth, likable characters, and it's a lovely Christmas movie. That's about it. There's no real pacing. Winslet is by far the more interesting actress, and she's teamed up with Jack Black, as a potential love interest and Eli Wallach, as her Oscar-winning screen writing neighbor, for the L.A. adventure - and the L.A. segments are better than the British.
Diaz meets Winslet's brother, played by handsome Jude Law, and it turns out he has a secret that we don't learn until later in the film. At one point she reminds him that she's leaving in nine days. I don't know. If Jude Law were after me, I doubt I'd be going anywhere in nine days.
For me this film was mildly entertaining. I'm not the demographic it's geared to, though. And I still can't understand how it cost $85 million.