The Holiday

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⭐ 7.5/10

(Originally written by Tim)

I saw a recent review of this movie and I felt that it was time to post my feelings, because I watch this movie every single year! It is the Christmas favourite of my wife's family, which is all girls, and while I agree that this movie is too long and Cameron Diaz isn't great I think this is a solid Christmas movie.

Jack Black and Kate Winslet are cute, but the scene stealer is Arthur. This is a movie about people who work on movies, which is fun, and I find that the California half of the movie is way more emotional and engaging than the other half. The other half does have smoldering Jude Law, but man oh man some of those scenes of them go on way too long and are so uncomfortable.

I think this is a good premise for a holiday movie too, house swap idea. But again, one side of that is way more interesting than the other. I always kind of forget that a key emotional point of the movie is that Diaz's character can't cry? That's some terrible writing.

I feel like I am defending this movie more than praising it, but I have sat on my phone while some of the Netflix Christmas trash is playing and this is 100x better, with talented and beautiful actors, nice looking places, some meta movie humour. If you want to find a romantic Christmas movie I defy you to find something better.

Also, Hans Zimmer score! The main theme has been Jess' ringtone for our whole marriage and I never get sick of it.

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