Is Physical Assault Really Funny??

Rating: Null/10 (25 May 2007)

I watched this movie on a 14 hour plane ride from San Francisco to Hong Kong, and believe me, I can't imagine any other circumstances in which I would have sat through the entire thing immobile. I'm not a great fan of Romantic Comedies, which I find are rarely very romantic and even less frequently funny. Possibly I'm just too old and cynical. But there wasn't much choice as a combination of boredom and a very efficient Cathay Pacific stewardess, had tied me to my (coach class) seat. And I started about a third of the way into the movie, which I realized later was definitely the best place to start.
This is a movie about two young women Amanda (Cameron Diaz  not one of my favourite actresses) and Iris (Kate Winslett  I adore Kate Winslett so I'm almost prepared to forgive her this dire interlude), who swap houses on a whim one Christmas, to escape their various romantic entanglements. Of course they meet new men and fall in love, as one always does when swapping houses, in this case with Jude Law and Jack Black. And I can't even recall the name of their characters (Graeme and Thingy? Ben and Jerry?) Amanda, who owns her own film promotion company and is a skinny over achiever (portrayed as a bitch of course, because she is successful), trots off (first class) to the English countryside where she wrestles with every British cliché in the book, such as driving on the left and stumbling across snowy meadows to reach the quaint, idyllic but chilly Rose Hill Cottage. Iris, an under achieving journalist, wronged in love by a classic British cad, legs it (economy) to LA, where she finds herself living next to a curmudgeonly old screen writer who turns out to have a heart of gold  no surprises there then. I came in where Iris arrives in LA and Amanda arrives in the UK.
Amanda falls for Iris' brother (Jude Law), widowed tragically and left with two sweet children. We never find out how he was widowed so young but I spent most of the movie hoping that it would turn out he had murdered his wife, and wishing he would do the same to Diaz. This would have cheered me up enormously, but I guess Cathay Pacific wouldn't have shown it on a long haul flight? (This script has definite possibilities as a horror movie. Isolated cottage, stranger knocking at the door at night, etc. In Surrey, no one can hear you scream.) I have rarely seen a worse matched pair than Cameron Diaz and Jude Law. She is all sharp angles and a whiplash tongue, playing the crazy LA stereotype and he is wildly miscast as stoical Graeme (or Thingy?) Diaz here reminded me of a piece of barbed wire.
Meanwhile Iris is getting up close and friendly with Jack Black's character in LA, who has himself been wronged by some actress or other. I actually found Winslett and Black a much more convincing couple than Diaz and Law, although it looked briefly like she might get shacked up with the curmudgeonly old screen writer. Jack Black is actually very good here, playing it very straight, and his character won my sympathy even if I can't recall his name. I found myself warming to them both by the (very predictable) end. I could see why she found him appealing.
Then, as the film looped back to the start, I saw the first third. Oh dear. Truly awful.
Diaz' character, Amanda, is just appalling. Can she seriously enjoy playing this kind of stuff? Or does it fill the time between surfing? Does anyone really find this offensive portrayal of modern, successful, young women entertaining? Is it me or is this just so unfunny?
At one point, Amanda actually physically assaults her ex lover, with two right hooks to the chin which knock him flat. This is presented as amusing entertainment. Just imagine if you can the reverse; a couple splitting up, so he decides to go out on a high note by punching his ex girlfriend to the ground. Would we still be expected to laugh? We have spent years trying to convince the world that men assaulting women is wrong, and here we have a woman assaulting a man presented as light entertainment. Is that really OK with everyone?
Yes I know this is just a popcorn movie, and I'm not the target audience  far too old and boring. But it matters, it's insidious. I don't want my teenagers watching this trash. And the worse part? It was written and directed by a woman. She should be ashamed of herself.