THE HOLIDAY

SYNOPSIS: Two women who have never met and live 6000 miles apart impulsively switch homes for the holiday in an effort to get over their broken hearts. They get more than they bargain for during their two week vacations – true love.

BOTTOM LINE: This film delivers exactly what you think it will – a light, funny, sometimes clever, somewhat intelligent ode to finding real love. That being said, with it's highly talented cast, I still expected it to be better than the sum of its' parts. Winslet is winning as the regular girl eternally waiting for the man of her dreams (Sewell) to really notice her and finally seal the deal. Diaz actually gets a character with drive and intelligence, unfortunately she can't quite pull it off. The good news is she doesn't really have to because she sparks wonderfully with Law, who is just too yummy for words. Though the film is about both of the ladies new found romances, the plot spends more time with the "attractive" couple, which detracts from the emotional power of the Winslet/Black coupling. They don't get enough screen time together to make their relationship more than an obvious conclusion to the meeting of two lonely single people. They're wonderfully funny and do have chemistry, but it wasn't enough to satisfy. The reasons Law and Diaz fall for one another are fairly clear, but the story does try and succeeds in giving their characters and relationship depth – though it was somewhat hard to swallow Law's backstory. Though the film follows a familiar track, Meyers makes some unique choices to keep things interesting, most notably the lovely subplot with Eli Wallach. At its' base level, THE HOLIDAY is entertaining enough for the price of admission, especially for those who love the genre.