With just two storylines, The Holiday paid tribute to the entire rom-com genre
The Holiday is very much a film about romantic comedies—how they’re structured, what we want from them, and the affect they can have on us
Image: Screenshot: The Holiday Film Features The Holiday
Movies about movies usually draw back the veil on the filmmaking process, but in 2006, Nancy Meyers made a different kind of movie about movies. Although The Holiday is only tangentially related to the film industry itself (one character cuts movie trailers, another composes scores, one’s a retired giant of the Golden Age of Hollywood), it’s very much a film about romantic comedies—how they’re structured, what we want from them, and the affect they can have on us. It pulls off a tricky balancing act, one that’s even more impressive than it seems at first glance. It’s a genuine, unapologetically cheesy rom-com that’s also a bit of a meta one, too.
Two rom-coms in one
While The Holiday hasn’t quite reached Love Actually-levels of divisiveness, it does tend to engender strong feelings about which half of its bifurcated structure is better. On the one side is Kate Winslet as Iris Simpkins, a Surrey-based wedding columnist who’s spent the past three years unable to get over her cheating ex-boyfriend/current coworker Jasper (Rufus Sewell). On the other side is Cameron Diaz as Amanda Woods, an L.A. workaholic who struggles to feel much at all about dumping her own cheating boyfriend (Edward Burns). Both in desperate need of a shake-up, the two women meet on a home-exchange website and agree to swap houses for a two-week Christmas vacation. Iris gets a chance to unwind in the lap of luxury, while Amanda is forced to let go of her micro-managed routine.
It’s immediately clear that The Holiday’s protagonists are two very different types of people. Iris is a lovelorn sad sack who can’t find the courage to speak up for herself, while Amanda is a high-strung control freak who hasn’t cried since she was 15 years old. But what’s maybe less immediately apparent is that they’re in two very different kinds of romantic comedies. After Amanda impulsively hooks up with Iris’ dashing older brother, Graham (Jude Law), they fall into a two-hander in the vein of When Harry Met Sally, in which both of the romantic leads have their own arcs. Iris, however, experiences a story that’s closer to Bridget Jones’s Diary or 27 Dresses, in which romance is just one part of the protagonist’s self-actualization journey. It’s what Crazy Ex-Girlfriend showrunner Aline Brosh McKenna calls the “and-a-man” model of storytelling, where finding love is a bonus, not the central focus.
So while I’ve seen critiques that the Iris section of the film doesn’t devote enough time to her eventual love interest, Miles (Jack Black), that’s very much a feature, not a bug. Iris has spent far too much of her life obsessing over romantic love, so she gets an arc that’s about learning to value friendship as much as romance, cutting out toxic people, and starting a relationship from a healthy, non-obsessive place. Amanda, meanwhile, gets a love story all about learning to open up her heart despite the risk. Together the two halves of The Holiday celebrate the variety of stories that can be found within a genre that’s often accused of being one-note and repetitive.
While that might sound a bit didactic on the page, The Holiday deploys lightly meta elements to add a sense of playful self-awareness to its rom-com tribute. Amanda edits movie trailers for a living, and she has recurring nightmares in which her struggles are narrated with the kind of cheesy voice-over that has anchored many a real-life rom-com trailer. It’s a conceit that lets you know The Holiday is very much aware of what kind of movie it is. Iris, meanwhile, befriends living legend Arthur Abbott (then 90-year-old Eli Wallach), the screenwriter we’re told added the “kid” to Casablanca’s “Here’s looking at you, kid.” He talks her through the beats of a classic romantic comedy and gives her recommendations for old movies starring empowered women. As The Holiday sets about delivering its meet-cutes, Arthur is there to helpfully define that term for the audience.
The Holiday isn’t above the kind of self-aggrandizing that’s often a hallmark of movies about movies. When Arthur informs Iris that in screenwriting terms she’s a leading lady who’s behaving like the best friend, she tearfully responds, “I’ve been going to a therapist for three years, and she’s never explained anything to me that well.” It’s perhaps unsurprising that Meyers—herself a lifelong screenwriter—would so exalt the power of her chosen profession. Yet the scene also has a ring of truth for anyone who’s ever processed an element of their life through pop culture.
Nancy Meyers and her rom-com legacy
By 2006, Meyers had firmly established herself as the reigning queen of romantic comedies. After co-writing iconic ’80s and ’90s comedies like Private Benjamin, Baby Boom, and Father Of The Bride, Meyers struck out on her own as a writer-director with The Parent Trap, What Women Want, and Something’s Gotta Give. The latter solidified what we think of as a “Nancy Meyers romantic comedy,” which are usually filled with immaculate kitchens, cream-colored sweaters, and the whimsical problems of wealthy middle-aged creatives. The Holiday is a little outside her norm in that its leads are younger and seemingly less burdened by topics like divorce and parenthood—at least until it turns out Amanda is permanently scarred by her parents’ breakup and Graham is secretly a widowed single father.
Although Diaz was the rom-com veteran of the cast (she’d previously starred in There’s Something About Mary and My Best Friend’s Wedding, among others), she’s saddled with the weakest character and never quite figures out how to make her work, despite giving it her all. Winslet and Black fare better as two nice, gentle people who spend most of the movie making each other laugh. This was Winslet’s first and so far only foray into a big studio rom-com and she gets the tone of her performance just right. While Black had previously starred opposite Gwyneth Paltrow in the Farrelly brothers’ abysmal Shallow Hal, The Holiday capitalizes on the gentler type of leading man charisma he brought to School Of Rock a few years earlier. As with Billy Crystal in When Harry Met Sally or Adam Sandler in The Wedding Singer, Black’s casting is a great example of a rom-com recognizing the importance of a male lead with genuine comedic charm.
But the film’s best performance comes from Jude Law, who, like Winslet, was making his first try at romantic comedy. This was also the capper to Law’s wild run as an early aughts leading man (he appeared in six films in 2004, including the rom-dram Alfie) before reinventing himself as a character actor. If Amanda is the character saddled with the most tropes, Graham is the film’s most original one. He’s playful and gentle and great at listening, which are the qualities that make him a good dad, though we don’t learn that full context until late in the film. That makes him a compelling, emotionally vulnerable enigma, and helps elevate the Amanda side of the story.
While Meyers’ films may not be realistic, she does have a great eye for specificity—like the way Graham entertains his daughters with a character called Mr. Napkinhead (himself with a napkin over his face). Meyers is also great at writing memorably snappy, character-revealing dialogue. After Graham talks about his parents’ publishing careers, Amanda admits she’d initially downplayed the fact that she owns her own company, adding, “Now that I know you were raised by such a strong working mom, I can say it and maybe you won’t be intimidated.” A lot of Meyers’ best lines go to Wallach, a real-life screen legend who knows just how to play his endearingly old-school fictionalized one. In describing his wife, Arthur notes, “She had real gumption. She was the girl I always wrote.” That same sweetness is carried on in Miles, who introduces the theme music he wrote for Iris with, “I used only the good notes.”
Some of Meyers’ best writing comes in how realistically manipulative she makes Jasper, the ex who keeps worming his way into Iris’ life. “I wish you could just accept knowing how confused I am about all this,” he responds when she asks him to clarify whether he’s still engaged to someone else as he starts putting the moves on her. It’s a spine-tinglingly accurate depiction of gaslighting in action. So while the climactic scene in which Iris throws him out is zippy rom-com fun, it’s also rooted in an emotional truth about how toxic people operate and the strength it takes to cut them out. That’s a welcome message in a movie aimed at a broad audience. (Although The Holiday only grossed $63.2 million domestically, it made $205.1 million worldwide, and has only grown in stature since.)
It’s easy to write off Meyers’ films, which look and feel like a lot of the increasingly soulless romantic comedies of the 2000s. To be honest, I was a bit nervous about whether my long-time affection for The Holiday would hold up on a rewatch. The fairly broad first act didn’t do a ton to assuage my nerves, what with Iris’ blunt opening narration and Amanda’s goofy physical comedy about trudging through the snow in heels. Yet as the film goes on, it finds its groove in a really lovely way, with some light Christmas (and Hanukkah!) theming that doesn’t go overboard with festive cheer. The Holiday demonstrates there’s a real art to what Meyers does, the equivalent of whipping up a soufflé as light as it will go without letting it collapse.
The Holiday is very much a film of its era and its director, which will limit its appeal for those who prefer their romances grounded in something closer to the real world. But unlike Love Actually or its many copycat rom-coms, which attempt to deliver a definitive encapsulation of the genre by cramming in as many storylines as possible, The Holiday uses just two main throughlines to offer an even more effective tribute. It’s designed as a gift to rom-com fans, which makes it a perfect film for the holiday season.
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Every movie should include a character dumping Edward Burns, just on principle.
REIBEN: Wait, you’re kicking me out?MILLER: Sorry, kid, it’s just not working out. The chemistry isn’t there anymore.REIBEN: But, but, what about New York? What about London? Remember that night in Sicily I thought I’d lost you forever?MILLER: Sometimes, kid, a guy’s gotta do what he’s gotta do.REIBEN: It’s somebody else, isn’t it? Somebody old, like Caparzo? [CAPARZO jams entire apple into his mouth, chews like a horse]
It’s someone new, like Upham. It’s Upham, isn’t it? [UPHAM noisily drops pencil, then a steno pad, then an adding machine, typewriter, and entire linotype machine before falling face first in a pile of manure.]MILLER: It’s nobody you know. But if you need a name, it’s Ryan. James Francis Ryan. He’s blond, General Marshall says he’s the bees knees, a real dreamboat, and let’s face it, I can’t get him out of my mind. [REIBEN sobs, softly, as MILLER embraces him, as if for the last time.]
ew
Savoring Ryan’s Privates was a breakout role for Edward Burns.
I thought he had a breakout in his privates.
Is it just me, or did he seem to be on the cusp of being the break-out leading man of the mid 90s before kind of disappearing?
This surprised me too but apparently he is still writing/directing to this very day. Someone should do a deep dive into his 2010s movies because I didn’t even knew they existed before the actual decade ended.
I’m not a rom-com person, generally speaking, but I love this movie unabashedly. While Iris and Amanda are obviously exaggerated tropes, I feel like I have been versions of each of them at different points in my life. Also, while it requires a serious suspension of disbelief to accept that either of these relationships would work out long term, I feel like it doesn’t matter. The story works just as well if they all go their separate ways afterwards, because the relationships served their purpose. Have I overthought this? Absolutely, yes. But I enjoy it, so who cares?
I absolutely agree. I don’t see either relationship lasting but I do think that all four people will be better for having had those relationships. That’s a win-win, in my book.
I saw this in the theater with the girl I had just started dating. We’ve been married for 12 years now and we still talk about how much we both hated this movie. I can’t even remember why anymore.
Jack Black = smug mugging? Lack of chemistry between the actors?
Somehow I completely missed this movie when it came out. I’m going to have to find it streaming somewhere. This was Winslet’s first and so far only foray into a big studio rom-com This is true, but I also kind of feel like Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind deserves an honorable mention in the category, even thought it’s more of an anti-rom com. Doesn’t it? Or did I just cause everybody else to look at me like I’m growing a plant out of the top of my head?
I can go with anti-rom-com. But with a fair amount of horror baked in. My goodness that movie gave me a nightmare or two.
I’m fairly certain it’s on either Prime or Netflix, as my wife was just watching it for about the twelfth time. It is one of the best romance comedies out there. (And it counts as a Holiday/Christmas movie.)Winslet and Law are exceptional in this and they elevate their costars and the movie above what could have been just a good movie.
Law is fantastic is just about everything I have seen him in. In my mind, one of the most underrated actors out there. I think he gets a worse rep than he deserves because he is too beautiful to be a pure character actor, even though that is where he shines (See also Brad Pitt).
He also comes across as a not terribly great person in his personal life, which makes it harder to accept him in these types of roles, even though his acting is always on point.
Yeah. I don’t know much about him in real life. I usually find out the bad things about actors around the second accuser stage of things. Otherwise, I give a lot of slack to people who act. It’s one of those things people think is easy, but actually takes some talent and skill. And to get to the top of the list of actors, you have to get really weird with your emotions.
I once read an article about Pitt that noted he’s a character actor with a leading man’s face. That made so much sense, and you’re right – I think it works for Jude Law, too.
I agree with you. Jude Law is consistently great in everything he is in. I also dare any person attracted to men to try not to fall in love with Jude Law in The Holiday.
But also incredibly hopeful. It spends most of its run time an an anti-rom-com then doubles back at the very end.
I think that ending is open to more than one interpretation.
Eternal Sunshine is more about subversion and the cruel reality of messy relationships, which is why while it does have laughs and wit, I would agree in that it is very much an anti-rom-com, and The Holiday is its antithesis. The Holiday is unabashed in leaning into its genre and the good feelings within; it is in blinking neon lights a ROMANTIC COMEDY.
I think that you are being very kind to this film, that ends with the cast all sort of having a good time while no one seems to know what they are supposed to be doing. Eli Wallach and his part of the film were both good; it was a nice moment when Kate Winslet sees his Oscar and Emmys among the rest of his clutter. It does have a wildly overqualified cast, not quite in the Love Actually range due to the sheer numbers in the latter. Does any other genre have so many overqualified casts relative to the quality of the material?
A movie doesn’t need to be constantly flinging action/drama/comedy/romance at the screen to be good. Many very good movies take moments to relax and take a breath. At least, they used to. Now if there isn’t a cut every 1.5 seconds people start to think something is wrong.What they are doing at the end of the movie is coming together and celebrating. It’s what people do when they become friends and family. It’s just the right note to end a movie about physical and emotional distance.
I often stand around and vaguely toast people who I know.
As well you should. Lang may yer lum reek!
A movie doesn’t need to be constantly flinging action/drama/comedy/romance at the screen to be good. Many very good movies take moments to relax and take a breath. At least, they used to. Now if there isn’t a cut every 1.5 seconds people start to think something is wrong.
People, people, please! Just because it’s a dramatic scene, doesn’t mean you can’t do a little comedy in the background. Throw a pie or two, for God’s sake.
Nah, that doesn’t sound right. Now fling something!!!
I mean I personally would say superhero movies but I know that’s an unpopular opinion
I love them, but you’re not wrong.
“Does any other genre have so many overqualified casts relative to the quality of the material?”I think that is basically the main element of a Nancy Meyers’s films: an overqualified cast in a vanilla-soaked movie about rich white people’s “problems”. I do like this one, though.
Tarvolt, you just reminded me of the THIS HAD OSCAR BUZZ Podcast’s episode on It’s Complicated, where they comment on Meryl Streep’s “insufficient kitchen” (her term) in a huge house in California, and a bespoke bakery kitchen she runs that was in fact part of Chelsea Market!I think they also mentioned how few Persons of Color exist in her films….
Eh. I like the kinda random ending dance. It’s goofy and works.Rom coms can be big business for relatively low production (no massive special effects, for instance), so it’s natural that they attract good casts. They’re just fun, too. I’m sure even actors would like to just take a job that’s “easy” and probably set in beautiful locales.
Whatever House of Gucci is, it does star four Oscar winners (one of them for best song, but still).
Made me think of “Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead”, and one kitchen scene in particular with Albert Finney, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Marisa Tomei, and no one else.
“ends with the cast all sort of having a good time while no one seems to know what they are supposed to be doing”
You mean like one of those Bollywoods?
Which is why I got to love Bollywood movies so much, The Kinja Caffeine Spider.
it can’t be overstated – there is some seriously good knitwear in this movie. Like, beyond cozy.
My GF was watching this just last week, while I was in the kitchen. She blurted out: “That is soooooo stupid. No person does that!”She cued up the scene, and we watched as Kate Winslet started dancing in bed to some generic rom-com, girl-power music, because of how thrilled she was at being able to stay in some gazillion dollar house for a couple of weeks. Yup.My thoughts: To get my GF to call out a rom-com it has to be REALLY stupid, cliched, boring, insulting, etc. That is this movie.
She was dancing to Jet’s Are You Gonna Be My Girl, which was an inescapable hit song 3 years before the movie premiered (and not some generic girl-power music, whatever the worth of the song itself) I’m not sure what is so wild about dancing in bed as a bit of silly fun to a song you know. I don’t think it would take having be at the start of a vacation in a crazy mansion in Beverly Hills to make me that giddy where I start clowning around my house. A good taco might do it for me, honestly.
Ah, Jet. The band Pitchfork reviewed an album of by posting a picture of a monkey drinking its own pee.
Welp, I regrettably don’t see that monkey-pee picture, but this was a thoroughly enjoyable read, regardless.
https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/4338-get-born/
https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/9464-shine-on/
Uncharacteristically kind from Pitchfork, I’d have said.
Wow, an unexpectedly passionate defense of the music of Jet and girly bed-dancing.
Defense of Jet, no. Just striving for accuracy. Defense of Girly bed-dancing- hell yes always.
So say we all
Does she also get mad when people in movies use silencers, or when characters in ancient Rome speak with British accents?
What accent do you want Ancient Romans to speak with?
Whatever they want; the point is that all three things are standard movie tropes that we’ve long since accepted for various reasons.
Silencers and accents are just matters of presentation that don’t affect characterisation or plot. Like having sound effects in scenes set in space. At any rate, the guy’s point above was that normally his gf wouldn’t care about these tropes – it was only because the film was so dull and unconvincing that her suspension of disbelief was ruined.
How about R-r-r-russian?
Wait, you mean Russian submarine commanders don’t have Scots burrs?Bet they do now.
Dude. Didn’t she see that automatic shade/curtain system?? I’d be bed dancing as well. I STILL fantasize about getting a set-up like that one day.
The scene largely acts as a way to show that the female leads despite being so different have some connections. I think Winslett’s dancing is far more realistic than Diaz doing Mr Brightside, but I actually enjoy both scenes.
Give me Winslet’s dancing here over Hugh Grant’s in Love, Actually any day. And actually, give me The Holiday over Love, Actually every single day & twice on Sunday.
It’s like people complaining about musicals – no one just bursts into song and starts dancing around!
But I do! If I don’t have a song handy, I’ll make one up!
I don’t think your GF is a great judge of things ‘nobody does’.
Well, we all have our “nobody does that” threshold, I think. I went with Kate in that scene because I wasn’t used to her being such a goofball. (I think she should be a goofball more often.)
Um. Not only have I done it, I’ve watched other people do it. So … doesn’t seem like the last word on either bed-dancing or this movie.
https://www.avclub.com/the-holiday-1798202230
I love this movie. It’s the only annual holiday movie I’ve watched so far this year and I was hoping I’d see this article after seeing it last weekend.There are a couple of things that stand out to me: Jude Law’s performance in particular blows me away every time. I like that he starts out seeming like the kind of sleezy character he usually plays only to turn out to be a genuinely good guy. I like that all of the main characters are genuinely decent people. I love Iris’ development that leads to her discovering gumption, I love what a nice guy Miles is and how unbelievably adorable Eli Wallach is throughout the movie. I’ve always liked Love Actually a lot more than I should but I definitely like The Holiday even more.
I was one of the rare people who preferred the Amanda storyline on that tweet poll you did a few weeks ago. I was surprised that the Iris storyline was so overwhelmingly favored. With some thought, as you identified, the best part of Amanda’s storyline is Jude Law’s character and performance. I’m also a big sucker for anything English, so I enjoyed the fish out of water stuff with Amanda, as light as it was. They just had great chemistry, which is not something I thought Winslet had with Black (they were just all right).The big question is always, what do you think happens after the movie ends? Do the two couple stay together, try to make trans continental romances work, end tragically or politely?
they’re all strangers in 6 months.
Even Graham and Iris? Wow, that’s dark.
oh, she’s not over Rufus Sewell yet. Those two have got at least one more hate-shag in them, and then she’ll implode in guilt. Her and Nacho Libre won’t make it Valentines Day. And wait till she hears Tenacious D….
the best part of Amanda’s storyline is Jude Law’s character and performance. Agreed. I’m surprised nobody who has seen it mentioned my favorite part. It’s the scene after the night when Amanda gets so drunk in the pub with Graham that the next day she can’t remember what they did. She asks him if they had sex and he tells her something like, “Call me old-fashioned, but one does not have sex with people who are unconscious.”If only more people would learn from that example.
I’ll be honest, this looked so milquetoast that I didn’t give it a second thought when it was released, and promptly forgot entirely about its existence until this very moment. I’m honestly surprised to see it praised even slightly.
Okay, so, I love a good rom com. When Harry Met Sally was my favorite movie for years, and I have enjoyed many a cheesy romance when it probably wasn’t all that warranted. And I enjoy Love Actually, and watch it every Christmas. However, I watched this movie, expecting to like it, and was extremely underwhelmed. It just felt really underbaked. Like, the cast is great and the characters are fine, but the writing felt flabby, with too many extraneous scenes that don’t lead anywhere, and dialogue that’s always a little too on the nose. And I wanted to like it. Do I need to watch it again?
Jack Black and Kate Winslet is one of those on-screen couples that make you say, “Yep, this sure is a movie.”
You don’t believe she wants his “womb-ferret”?
Thank you for killing my testicles on this fine Friday morning
I dunno the way she says it still manages to make me feel kinda funny, it’s around 6:45
I don’t know, in college, I had a boss who looked and sounded like Kevin Smith (not as much weed usage, but some) but he was also a gifted, charismatic talker and punched above his traditional attractive weight-class often because he charmed the pants off women, literally and figuratively. There really is a sliding scale of making up for some rotund features and whatnot by possessing qualities people look for in partners, like kindness, humor, and warmth.
Yeah but you almost never see the reverse in movies
Yeah, and that’s a cultural thing, esp. in the creative process. It’s just an easy writing trope that the guy is funny and the woman is hot. Not that the reverse is impossible when someone takes a good crack at it:
Why do you think that is?
It’s a common truism that the class clowns tend to be males, and that women value a sense of humor in a partner more. I suppose it’s a way for males to show of for women since we don’t have the flashy tails of peacocks.
Nah. I think it’s because male writers are intimidated by funny women.
This is a Nancy Meyers movie.
Oh I’m sorry, you seem to have blundered into this thread two years late without realizing that we were discussing a general trend in movies. You can leave now.
After watching this not long after it came out, I asked my mom who she would pick, Jude or Jack, she instantly picked Jack.Jack Black does have that sort of raw sexual charisma.Another person I immediately think of who exudes that sense of sexiness is Jane Lynch, especially in 40 Year Old Virgin, when she offers to sleep with Andy, you get the sense she would absolutely wreck him.
Sounds like a “Tao of Steve” type, which, incidentally, is a solid movie.“When I’m hanging out with a woman, that’s all I’m doing is hanging out, talking, listening. I’m not sitting there thinking about how to get in bed with her. And this completely confuses them because they’re saying “Wait a minute. I’m so much better looking than this guy. Isn’t he attracted to me?”
This movie should be campy, but it’s played straight, and it’s still goddamn gold. I’ve TrashWatched tons of RomComs and Holiday Swill to simply giggle about every design/script/blocking/lighting choice, let alone the acting. I think this movie is perfection. Without Winslet, this movie is tripe.
I agree, the movie only works because of Winslet. The Jude Law/Cameron Diaz relationship is complete fantasy. Of COURSE they had to make him a widower who keeps his children a secret because he’s “afraid” of getting close to someone. And of COURSE his children instantly fall in love with her and she with them.
Diaz and Law, while both exceptionally good-looking blond(e)s, have zero romantic chemistry. Black and Winslet don’t really either, but 100% they read as people who enjoy each other’s company.
I’m not generally a rom-com loving gal (I hate, hate, hate Love Actually), but I caught this on Hulu last year and found it charming.
remember when Richard Roeper put Shallow Hal in his top 10 for the year? And some people were like YES put a broad comedy in your top 10 list, next time it will be horror! and others were like WHY that movie
I first watched this with my nieces when they were 12 and 14, and we loved it. It became ‘our’ movie and now that they are grown and killing it out in the world, I watch it and think of them and wish we were together.
I’m a huge Kate Winslet fan and this movie just proves how she can be brilliant in literally anything (even the dreadful Wonder Wheel). The scene at the beginning where she find out Jasper is engaged and she quietly conveys her absolute devastation and heartbreak gets me every time.
yes! so glad someone mentioned this! I just rewatched this last week (and then happened to discover this review), and I remember being shocked at how teary eyed I was getting. Winslet nails heartbreak so well, it feels so genuine. A few moments before, she was elated, now she wants to curl into a ball. And who hasn’t experienced something like this where love is involved. So relatable. I also loved that her character is a nice person. She cares about others and that’s all there is to it
who hasn’t experienced something like this
Me.
Another one to add to my list!
Well today I learnt that The Holiday and Tara Road, are actually two different movies . https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tara_Road_(film)(I’ve never seen either but I’m guessing its a Bugs Life/Antz or “Dantes Peak/That shit volcano film with Tommy Lee Jones” scenario)
I had never heard of Tara Road before. It came out earlier and it was based on a novel, so it seems The Holiday is the ripoff (only more successful since I’d heard of that one).
It actually is just called Volcano.
I stand by what I call it , it was a turd made of lava.
Well I agree there.Also I apologise for replying to a post from two years ago, I didn’t realise this was a reposted article!
I’d like to suggest watching the film Holiday instead. A much better movie.
While I hated The Ugly Truth and have nothing to defend it with, my least favorite romantic comedy is Sweet Home Alabama. I remember it just hating women so much.
Is The Ugly Truth the worst rom-com ever made?Yes.
I watched the embedded clip and saw a glimpse of Kathryn Hahn. This movie was made, I think, around the same time that she had a regular role on Crossing Jordan. Amazing that it took her this long to have a breakout year.
Eli Wallach was completely adorable in this. There is a split second in the Hannukah party scene where he looks from Kate Winslet to Jack Black, sort of an “Aha!” moment that said, “These two kids belong together.”
By the way, that’s not any cheesy voice-over narration in the Diaz story, it’s narration by the late Hal Douglas, one of the more famous commercial/trailer voiceover guys this side of Don Lafontaine. If you watched any of The WB in its day, that’s him in the promos.
Given that this article dropped on a Thursday instead of the normal Friday and doesn’t feature a line at the end about what the next one will be about, I’m assuming this is the last one. If so, I just want to say that I’ve really enjoyed the feature.
omg the soundtrack by Hans is amazing too
Wait! What’s the next one? Is this the last one?
At the end of the one for The Family Stone, it says, “Next time: After a brief holiday break, we return in 2022.” So sounds like the next one is unknown, but this isn’t the last.
Right but I did not expect her to release two columns in two days. I guess this makes up for the Holiday gap. An explanation of this in this column would have been nice. I have not watched that many rom-coms and I really appreciate Caroline’s analysis.
This was a heinous, hideous, waste of time, and I only made it half way through.
Jude Law’s Mr. Napkinhead is ridiculously charming, made even more so by the ridiculously adorable little girls cast as his daughters. “You look like my Bahhhhbie!” It’s always nice when movie kids are genuinely cute as opposed to overly coached-ly movie cute.The movie, like every Nancy Myers movie I’ve seen, is overly long, and if you’re casting a lovelorn sad sack, maybe don’t make her look like Kate Winslet, but other than those quibbles, this movie is a nice winter play-in-the-background-while-baking cozy romp.
And now another exciting chapter of Amanda Woods: L.A. Workaholic!
I feel like a lot of Rom-Coms are visually lazy but this movie and Love Actually have some nice cinematography.