The Holiday (2006)

Two women troubled with guy-problems swap homes in each other's countries, where they each meet a local guy and fall in love.

Director:

Nancy Meyers

Writer:

Nancy Meyers

Stars:

Cameron Diaz, Kate Winslet, Jude Law

1 win & 5 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Cameron Diaz	...	Amanda Woods
Kate Winslet	...	Iris Simpkins
Jude Law	...	Graham
Jack Black	...	Miles
Eli Wallach	...	Arthur Abbott
Edward Burns	...	Ethan
Rufus Sewell	...	Jasper Bloom
Miffy Englefield	...	Sophie
Emma Pritchard	...	Olivia
Sarah Parish	...	Hannah
Shannyn Sossamon	...	Maggie
Bill Macy	...	Ernie
Shelley Berman	...	Norman
Kathryn Hahn	...	Bristol
John Krasinski	...	Ben

Storyline

In London, Iris Simpkins writes a wedding column in a newspaper and nurtures an unrequited love for her colleague Jasper Bloom. Near Christmas, she is informed that Jasper is engaged to marry another colleague, and her life turns upside down. In Los Angeles, the movie-trailers maker Amanda Woods has just split with her unfaithful boyfriend Ethan and wants to forget him. Through a house exchange website, Amanda impulsively swaps her mansion for Iris' cottage in Surrey for the holidays. While in Surrey, Amanda meets Iris' brother and book editor Graham and they fall in love with each other. Meanwhile, Iris meets her new next door neighbor the ninety year old screenplay writer Arthur, who helps her retrieve her self-esteem, and the film composer Miles, with whom she falls in love.

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Plot Keywords:

love | composer | film composer | house | book | 

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Genres:

Comedy | Romance

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated PG-13 for sexual content and some strong language

Details

Official Sites:

Official site [United Kingdom] United International Pictures [Germany]

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

8 December 2006 (USA)

Also Known As:

El descanso

Filming Locations:

1883 Orlando Road, San Marino, California, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$85,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend:

£2,826,520 (UK) (8 December 2006)

Gross:

$63,224,849 (USA) (26 January 2007)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Columbia Pictures, Universal Pictures, Relativity Media

Technical Specs

Runtime:

138 min

Sound Mix:

DTS SDDS Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

This film was written specifically with actors Cameron Diaz, Kate Winslet, Jude Law, and Jack Black in mind.

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Goofs

When Kate Winslet and Jack Black are in the video store, a shot behind Winslet is labelled as a rack with "Drama" but you can clearly see the films 13 Going on 30 and 10 Things I Hate About You which are comedies not dramas.

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Quotes

Amanda: I'm not going to fall in love with you, I promise.
Graham: Okay. Nicely put. Thank you.
Amanda: No, it's just that I know myself. I'm not sure I even fall in love. Not like the way other people do. How's that for something to admit?
Graham: Well, like I said, Most Interesting Girl Award.
Amanda: I'm gonna try to see that as a compliment.
Graham: You should. Absolutely.

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Connections

References The Accidental Tourist (1988)

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Soundtracks

"Mr. Brightside"
(2003)
Written by Brandon Flowers, Dave Keuning, Mark Stoermer, and Ronnie Vannucci
Performed by The Killers
Courtesy of The Island Def Jam Music Group
Under license from Universal Music Enterprises

User Reviews

The Holiday

The Holiday is about two women who each have recently had problems with the men in their lives. Amanda lives in California and Iris lives in England. Neither of these women have ever met before, but they both want to escape for the holidays, so they talk online and decide to swap houses and automobiles for two weeks, so in other words Amanda would be staying at Iris's house in England and Iris would be staying at Amanda's house in California. Once they both reach their destinations they are both pretty bitter about men, but each of them soon meets different men in their lives who mean a lot to them and may make their holiday something to remember. The Holiday has good direction, a good script, good performances by the entire cast and good original music. At first I wasn't really getting into this film and thought it would be a film that would probably appeal more to a woman than to me. Also the Amanda character played by Cameron Diaz annoyed me at first and I found her kind of artificial and ego centric. However as the film played on I found myself really liking this film. The characters grew on me and I found quite a bit to like about this movie. The chemistry between all the different characters works very well and their parts are all quite well written and the actors playing them each do a good job. I found that the film also developed and showed a lot about these characters which I enjoyed because the more I got to know about them the more I liked them and they were able to grow on me more. Each character in this film brings something unique to the table by being different and by really making this film more interesting than perhaps it sounds. The really rewarding thing about this film is how well the characters work with one another and that they are well written and well acted. This film is a romantic comedy and for the most part a lot of romantic comedies do not do a whole lot for me because I find them silly and more for the female viewer than the male viewer, but this movie offers a lot of humour, heart and is just generally a pleasant feel good film that I think both male and female viewers will enjoy. One of the better films of the year and one of the better romantic comedies of recent years as well.