If this is what a Holiday is like, then I'd prefer to work all my life

Rating: 4/10 (23 December 2006)

I should have known better. No, I did know better, but the Missus insisted that we go see this year's Christmas chick-flick called "The Holiday". What can I say? It's "Love Actually" all over again only worse. Every cliché, every little bit of kitsch you could possibly think of is here. It's a wonder Julia Roberts and Hugh Grant aren't in this.
The story is incredibly boring and not funny for a moment. Its cutesiness is the worst thing about it. Like Jude Law's character. Aww... he's a father of two kids. Aww... he's a single father, but he's not divorced, no, his wife died. Aww...she died two years ago, so it's okay for him to walk around drunk fcuking blonde strangers. Yeah, I'm sorry, but that's what the movie is like. Like it or not.
What's even worse, though, is that there isn't just one boring storyline, no, there are TWO! "The Holiday" is an example of how parallel storytelling can go wrong. The only thing I could think about while almost falling asleep during Law and Diaz' incredibly dull romance was that there was still another dull romance to dissolve before I could finally leave and go home. As much as I like Kate Winslet and Jack Black in other movies they were just as bad as everything else here. And their storyline has even got a "lovely" old man in it, which made things even more horrific.
If you find yourself contemplating suicide while watching this movie, don't worry. It's not you who's too cynical, it's the movie that's too damn sweet. Oh, and in defense of my Missus it must be said that she hated the movie, too. Thank God. I might have had to think about breaking up otherwise.