Product: Holiday (1938)
Rating: 5.0
Not just a holiday, but a way of life
For a film that just turned 70 years old, "Holiday" is remarkably timely. The question of what to do with your life, whether there's more to it than just making money & accruing power & status, resonates all the more in contemporary times. Everywhere the emphasis is on getting more, More, MORE!And for what?That's what Johnny Case (a young Cary Grant at his most charming & energetic) is wondering as the story begins. Not averse to hard work & making enough to live on, he's thinking beyond that, wanting to use his money as the means to an end, rather than as an end in itself. And he assumes that his brand-new fiancée Julia (Doris Nolan), with whom he's head over heels in love, feels the same way ... until he meets her family, which just happens to be one of the richest in America. He soon discovers that something more mainstream is expected of someone with his financial acumen.But Julia's siblings Linda (a scintillating Katherine Hepburn) & Ned (an equally good Lew Ayres) agree with Johnny's notion of a "holiday," making enough to live on for a couple of years while he sorts out his life, discovers what it is he really wants. As do his eccentric friends Nick & Susan Potter, played to a delicious turn by Edward Everett Horton & Jean Dixon. Still, he loves Julia, and wants to work out some sort of reasonable compromise ... even as he begins falling for Linda, and vice-versa.It's the all too relevant dilemma of living in a society that glorifies, even deifies wealth. What is Johnny to do? How much of his personal dream should he, can he put aside for the sake of his intended wife & her family? What are his obligations to use his talents? What does he owe himself? In many ways, he's a close cousin to Tyrone Power's Larry Darrell in "The Razor's Edge."These questions wouldn't be out of place in any American household today, especially for someone fresh out of college, just beginning a career. Is the goal of life a McMansion, a Hummer, a wall-sized plasma TV? Or is there more to life than that, something more meaningful & satisfying, even though scorned by the majority?And note the attitudes of Julia's cousins at the big party, snobbish & arrogant & verging on fascist. To them, society belongs to a handful of the very wealthy, superior to the mere masses, who exist solely to serve their masters. Which might remind more than a few viewers of the people currently running & devouring America right now.It's a film rich with food for thought -- but never at the expense of entertainment, which makes it even better. The acting is uniformly wonderful, and the banter is witty as only dialogue from the classic era of film can be. Yet after the credits have rolled, and the smile still lingers on your face, you'll find yourself thinking about the film's deeper message. Most highly recommended!