Way too coy, cloying, cute, sweet and predictable

Rating: 4/10 (9 May 2007)

Didn't like it. Not one little bit. Way too coy, cloying, cute, sweet and predictable. The whole thing was slightly annoying and queasy. The American Girl character was awful. The British guy character was a sap and self consciously a nice man. Kate's part was OK and so was the part of the American Guy, but neither of them were particularly exciting or memorable characters. There were lots of things wrong with the script.
It was also badly researched. I'll give you an example. There was a scene when the American Girl character is in the UK and is watching a trailer that she made for an action film. (The American Girl character's job is as a film trailer maker.) Voice-over Man is giving it some welly and ends with the very deep and gruff proclamation, "Christmas Day", which I suppose was when the film is supposed to be coming out. No. Wrong. In the UK the cinemas are closed on Christmas Day. As far as I am aware this has always been the case. e.g. No films open here on Christmas Day. Family films often open on Boxing Day, but not on Christmas Day. Somebody should have picked up on that.
"The Holiday" wasn't very good, for all of the reasons I mention above. I had hoped that Jack Black might give the American Guy character a bit of oomph, but sadly not. He seemed to be acting on tranquilisers. They should have let Jack Black play Jack Black. Jack Black is very good at playing Jack Black. Nice Dustin Hoffman joke, though.