Holiday hell

Rating: 5/10 (28 December 2009)

I was encouraged to see this film on TV last night because of the vast array of talent on offer. Sadly the lead performances are overacted and the girls clearly are not comfortable in the things the director has made them do (Diaz dancing in the cottage, Jude Law only just comes out unscathed). This would have been passable except that the plot is tedious. Oddly enough what really made it unbelievable is that when Winslet returns home from work early on she manages to leave late from work, still get a train to Surrey, get from the station to a country road and then walk miles down it. All apparently within 40 mins of London, more like 2 1/2 hours.
Having lived in the city for years this is too stupid and it shows that the film was so busy trying to be sweet and idyllic that it forget to make any sense. This is picky I know but follow that up with the English driver refusing to drive the car down the snowy lane. WHAT! Reverse it moron!
In short, I was surprised to see this at 6.9. 5-6 is much more appropriate as at 6.9 someone might confuse this with adequacy.