The Holiday

The holiday is an intimate effort to make a mushy I-dream-I-realize kind of a movie; only it fails to take off. For, however creatively conceived and cocooned the cerebral concept might have seemed at inception, it still manages to transform itself on screen well outside of the present times. How else would a Los Angles girl Amanda (Cameron Diaz) swap her mansion in Hollywood with London girl Iris (Kate Winslet), just to run away from a broken relationship?

The theme though peppy if you chose to ignore the hiccups- turns out, in the end, to be only an intention to bury the dividing lines of geography and lifestyles. And falls short. When both change their houses, downed by their guys choosing others, the movie begins with skepticism blurring the minds of the viewers: Amanda couldnt cry, it is shown, owing to a fighting-parents-syndrome and Iris cant stop crying. And guess what?Both of these sulking girls fall straight into the waiting arms of new-found-love. The usual ifs and buts complete the story, and the movie.

As regards direction, the camera angles chosen by Nancy Myres are boring, subjects too stark and without overlap, switch over way too short of ripening, variables (strengths) like lights, settings, locales too drab. Cameron Diaz is passable, ditto for Kate. Jude Law fails to impress and Jack Black is smiling all too unnecessarily.

To sum up: Watch only if you are coping with a broken relationship, and imbibe a false sense of hope: rainbow, in my teacup. My guess is that even then you will be disappointed.Rating: 4.5/10.