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Nancy Meyers, the director enjoys romantic love but is also in touch with its more drawn-out agonies. In her neo-screwball world of dizzy dames and the broken people who do and have done them harm, love is a drug, an escape an ordeal, and a ready excuse to do a lot of talking. In a Nancy Meyers film men and women don’t just fall in love, they talk about falling in love, falling out of love, and needing, fearing, and surrendering to love. I can only imagine how much they would have driven Raymond Carver insane.
Nobody will soon forget Ms. Meyer’s presentations and her fans used to love her until her desperate attempts to impress them resulted in a loss of her talent. She spectacularly coordinates her eagerness with Diane Keaton’s performance which is truly magical as a woman intensely in love, mildly stunned by meeting Jack Nicholson in the romantic comedy, Something’s Gotta Give. The film is delightful and easy to watch even in the confines of an airplane and her inordinate love for finer details comes beautifully with how every portion of Ms. Keaton’s costume deserves praise. It is a masterpiece every bit of tear and blush she gives makes it look more passionate.
As in other movies, there is a hint of discomfort felt watching The Holiday and in this particular case, the discomfort is caused mostly by Iris a lovesick but ever-beautiful English girl played by Kate Winslet, and the shake in the plot. She is still captured and firmly decedent in love with a man she believes to still feel affection for her who she unbelievably hopes will send loving letters. Iris works as a columnist in London Divided And And Essay. Unfortunately, she is also bound to some romantic sadism.
Even the new lady is a slightly skinny brunette who is no competition for the ex-wife who still sounds like an old typewriter coughing up tears into her laptop. This makes me wonder whether she ever moved out of the relationship. It has survived for years sustained by her longing and his thirst for her devotion.
Regardless of whether it is her best work or not, Ms. Winslet has never disappointed as an actress. Being able to bask in her glory does make it more comforting to sit through baffling stories where, hypothetically a character like Iris hurls Jasper with all her might into the wastebasket to be with someone who lives up to her expectations like Hugh Grant in Love Actually or the more unscrupulous but sexier Grant from the Bridget Jones comedies. But, Ms. Meyers, whose aspirations can be perceived just like her movie’s title which borrows from one of George Cukor’s delightful romps, Holiday, came out in the year 1938. Here, like always, she stumbles by complicating things creating the ox of burden by giving Iris an opulently kitsch Los Angeles lookalike, Amanda. Infused with charm and an elementary lack of convincing power, Cameron Diaz plays Amanda, who does not so much reflect Iris’ love issues as painful relief.
In the US, where Christmas is big, two strangers appear to celebrate it with an exchange program. Amanda finds herself in a countryside cottage that seems to be straight out of a Beatrix Potter sketch, whereas Iris moves into an Olympic-sized pool mansion in Los Angeles with a maid. The flat-screen TV with Iris’ favorite Hollywood classics like A Place in the Sun and Clash by Night gets the premiere treatment, and in turn, she gets elated. If Iris misses the point, a sassy Eli Wallach, who is a studio screenwriter, scratches his head over the demise of modern cinema, quoting how horrid it has turned while an old neglected Oscar glows in the background.
Keeping the Holidays is essentially the two women, two houses, and two love interests story Jude Law maps with Ms. Diaz, Whereas Ms. Winslet is lucky with Jack Black. There is something touching if willfully naive about Ms. Myers’s sentimentality toward Hollywood’s golden age, which is characterized by Louis B. Mayer ruling the very lot in which she shot part of this film. While she might not thrive today had her name been Ned instead of Nancy, she would have been allowed to go amusingly (or maddeningly) off point. She might be filled with commercial speech instincts, not dialogue where mouth stuffing can be permitted. An old studio producer would have known that one film does not do justice to the clutter encaged in this one, and perhaps even call in Ben Hecht to polish some highlights, while knowing that Ms. Myers always has something to give.
Directed and written by Nancy Meyers, Dean Cundey served as director of photography, Joe Hutshing provided editing services Hans Zimmer composed the music, Jon Hutman was the production designer, Ms. Meyers and Bruce A. Block were the producers and the studio Columbia Pictures distributed the film. Time Length: 131 Minutes.
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