There's always next time...

Rating: 6/10 (28 December 2008)

A long time ago, writer/director Nacy Meyers did a glorious romantic comedy, "What women want". It was funny, it was romantic and it had its main actors in completely unexpected roles. With time she was apparently captivated by nice sceneries, and left the city to show her characters in wider places, living longer, almost ending love stories. This led into "Something's gotta give", a film full of repeated moments in which actors still shone bright.
With "The Holiday", Meyers' finest attributes (the direction of actors and her writing, that is) are still in top form; the problem is that in every other aspect she's trying something more ambitious than her previous efforts. This film presents us four main characters that live two major love stories (that include, we might say, other two) in two different places in the world. It's not what I would have prescribed for someone like Meyers.
Although "The Holiday" is better than her previous piece, some things are almost embarrassing and show us a writer that might be running out of ideas. To do a whole sequence with the old joke of 'driving on the wrong side', the typical American problem when in England; to give Jack Black a role completely different from what he's done and finally asking him to do his classic act (singing and dancing like a fool, but like nobody can); introducing a plot line involving an old writer and comparisons between the modern Hollywood and what it used to beIt's not that the words characters speak seem off, it's the presence of all of this things that make us doubt the director's originality.
About the words, well, it isn't too different from what we've seen from Meyers before or what we get in the typical contemporary film of the genre. As in every script, there are things that shouldn't be spoken by the characters, silences that should be respected, musical montages that are unnecessary (this is more related to direction).
To her favor, Meyer hasn't followed the typical developments of the love relationships and has been able to introduce a couple of unexpected funny and dramatic situations; and while there's an important lever of corniness that some characters admit to be looking for, expressions are never too far-fetched to be doubted.
It's understandable that Meyers does a balance. After all, "The Holiday" is for every kind of audience possible, and it has to contain an obligatory familiarity. For this Meyers takes the wisest decisions related to acting. The four main characters are kind of familiar, and it looks as if the roles had been written for the actors who play them. Kate Winslet (is it possible to be that good of an actor?) plays the depressing Iris, who's in love with someone who doesn't love her backShe's the one who gives the movie's initial speech, about relationship.
Cameron Diaz plays Amanda, an also depressing woman who worries too much about herself and is on the movie trailer making industry. Amanda and Iris are the one who take the holiday of the title and meet Graham and Miles, respectively. Graham is played by a subtle and calm Jude Law who abuses of his oldest winning trick: the smile. Meanwhile, Black delivers a confusing performance that doesn't decide between the serious and the ridicule and that finally rests in his typical act, as I said.
"The Holiday" does no harm, but it still could have been a better ride. With fewer characters and a more centered love story, and some other things that don't come to mind right now. Anyway, maybe next time, right?
Hans Zimmer's scoreNo words for that magic.