The Holiday

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For other uses, see Holiday (disambiguation).
The Holiday

Theatrical release poster
Directed by Nancy Meyers
Produced by Nancy Meyers
Written by Nancy Meyers
Starring Cameron Diaz
Kate Winslet
Jude Law
Jack Black
Eli Wallach
Edward Burns
Rufus Sewell
Shannyn Sossamon
Music by Hans Zimmer
Cinematography Dean Cundey
Editing by Joe Hutshing
Distributed by Columbia Pictures
Universal Pictures
Release date(s) December 8, 2006
Running time 138 min.
Country Flag of the United States
Language English
Budget $85 million
Official website
Allmovie profile
IMDb profile

The Holiday (2006) is a romantic comedy film distributed by Columbia Pictures, starring Cameron Diaz, Kate Winslet, Jude Law, and Jack Black.

Contents

[edit] Plot

After 3 years of an on-again off-again relationship, Iris (Kate Winslet) is still in love with Jasper Bloom (Rufus Sewell), her co-worker at a London publishing house, despite his infidelity and exploitation of her feelings. However, during her company's Christmas party, Jasper announces that he is now engaged to Sarah Smith-Alcott, the woman with whom he cheated on Iris, and Iris is crushed.

Meanwhile, Amanda, (Cameron Diaz) in Malibu, California, has just recently found out that her boyfriend, Ethan (Edward Burns), has been sleeping with his 24-year-old receptionist. She dumps him, but reveals that she is unable to cry. On a whim, Amanda decides to take a break from her hectic job and love life and rent a house somewhere far away. While surfing a home exchange site, she finds Iris in Surrey, England. And the two agree to exchange.

Amanda arrives during a snowstorm at her exchange home in a picture-postcard village in rural Surrey and is extremely bored there, but Iris is pleasantly surprised at the sheer size and luxury of Amanda's house. Amanda decides to pack up and take a noon flight home the next day. However that evening she meets Graham (Jude Law), Iris's older brother, who had come to Iris's house to sleep off his drunkenness. They each take a liking to each other and decide to have a one-night stand, given the fact that they would probably never see each other again. The next morning, Amanda tells Graham her plans to leave. He is clearly disappointed, but invites her to dinner with his friends if she changes her mind. At the airport, Amanda considers the opportunity she could be missing with Graham. Later that night, Graham walks into the pub, and eventually sees Amanda. The two continue to build a relationship over the coming days despite her worries about phone calls he gets from people named Sophie and Olivia.

Meanwhile, Iris meets Amanda's neighbors, including an old man named Arthur Abbott (Eli Wallach) who wrote scripts for a score of classic A-list movies. They start a friendship, and Iris notices a letter in Arthur's mail imploring him to appear at the Writers Guild Festival for an evening honoring his work. Arthur merely throws out the letter and Iris, aghast, is told that he declined every time they sent him a request fearing he'd be seen as a crippled, old man in front of the few people who remembered him, duly from shame. Iris helps Arthur get in shape to attend the ceremony without his walker. While she helps Arthur, she also becomes friends with Miles (Jack Black), who is involved with an actress named Maggie (Shannyn Sossamon). While spending time with Iris, Miles spots Maggie cheating on him with another man. After a confrontation, she breaks up with him, and Miles finds consolation in his relationship with Iris. To get the dilemma off their minds, Iris collaborates with Miles, who composes some music for Arthur's opening entrance.

Amanda and Graham continued their relationship despite Amanda's doubts about her abilities to have a successful relationship. One night, Amanda decides to surprise Graham at his home and discovers with a knock on the door that Sophie and Olivia were actually his daughters. She also discovers that Graham has another secret - he is a widower. He then says that he was sorry that he never told her, and that she probably did not want to carry on with their relationship. On the contrary, she is delighted with his adorable children. When they sleep together on their last night together, Graham confesses that he loves Amanda. She tells him that she did not expect to hear that, and he feels foolish for exposing his unrequited feelings.

Jasper visits Iris in L.A. on the day of Arthur's ceremony, telling her he doesn't want to lose her, despite his impending marriage. Iris, however, clearly decides that she feels like a fallback who is being used. She tells Jasper coldly that she is finally over him and kicks him out. Miles, in the mean time, meets with Maggie, who apologizes and pleads for another chance. Miles declines. Iris escorts Arthur to the Writers Guild Convention (where Miles joins her) and listen to his speech in a theater packed with admirers. Liberated from their emotional ties, Miles asks Iris out for New Year's Eve. When Iris says she'll be in England, he decides he'd like to visit so that they can continue their relationship. She agrees and they seal it with a kiss. On the day that Amanda is to return to the U.S., she and Graham have one last kiss, and she leaves. In the taxi on the way to the airport, Amanda finds herself crying, something she hasn't done since she was 15 years old, the day her parents divorced. She gets out of the taxi and runs back a long distance to Iris's house. When she gets there, she finds Graham who had been crying himself. She says "You know, I was just thinking. What would be the point in leaving before New Year's Eve?" They hug and stay together. The movie closes with Iris, Miles, Amanda, Graham, and Graham's children all happily celebrating the New Year together at Graham's house in Surrey.

[edit] Cast

[edit] Location

Filming on location in Godalming.
Filming on location in Godalming.

The film was partially filmed in Los Angeles, Godalming, Surrey and the nearby villages of Wonersh and Shere. Exterior scenes of the house of Cameron Diaz's character in the film were shot in San Marino, California. The interior sets for Amanda's house were built on a sound stage and cost approximately $1 million, without exterior walls, a roof, plumbing, heating and electricity.

The first location that Cameron Diaz's character clicks on for a vacation location - The Cotswolds - is the region in which Kate Winslet lives in real life.

When Iris (Kate Winslet) is driving Arthur (Eli Wallach) home, he asks her what part of England she is from. She says "Surrey", to which he replies "Cary Grant was from Surrey" and explains he knows this because Cary Grant told him once. He was actually from Bristol, some 100 miles to the west of Surrey.

[edit] Music

Main article: The Holiday (soundtrack)

[edit] Track listing

  1. "Maestro" - Hans Zimmer
  2. "Iris and Jasper" - Hans Zimmer and Lorne Balfe
  3. "Kayak for One" - Ryeland Allison
  4. "Zero" - Hans Zimmer and Atli Orvarsson
  5. "Dream Kitchen" - Hans Zimmer and Henry Jackman
  6. "Separate Vacations" - Hans Zimmer, Lorne Balfe, and Imogen Heap
  7. "Anything Can Happen" - Hans Zimmer and Heitor Pereira
  8. "Light My Fire" - Hans Zimmer
  9. "Definitely Unexpected" - Hans Zimmer and Lorne Balfe
  10. "If I Wanted to Call You" - Hans Zimmer and Atli Orvarsson
  11. "Roadside Rhapsody" - Hans Zimmer and Henry Jackman
  12. "Busy Guy" - Hans Zimmer and Henry Jackman
  13. "For Nancy" - Hans Zimmer, Atli Orvarsson, and Lorne Balfe
  14. "It's Complicated" - Hans Zimmer and Imogen Heap
  15. "Kiss Goodbye" - Heitor Pereira and Herb Alpert
  16. "Verso E Prosa" - Heitor Pereira
  17. "Meu Passado" - Hans Zimmer, Henry Jackman, and Lorne Balfe
  18. "The 'Cowch'" - Hans Zimmer, Heitor Pereira, Lorne Balfe, and Imogen Heap
  19. "Three Musketeers" - Hans Zimmer, Heitor Pereira, Lorne Balfe, and Imogen Heap
  20. "Christmas" - Hans Zimmer and Lorne Balfe
  21. "Gumption" - Hans Zimmer, Atli Orvarsson, and Henry Jackman
  22. "Cry" - Hans Zimmer, Lorne Balfe, and Heitor Pereira

[edit] Reviews

The movie was mixed received by critics: RottenTomatoes gave it a total score of 46%[1] and MetaCritic gave it 52/100.[2]
The Hollywood Reporter named the film "a Yuletide chick flick with plenty of heart".[3]

[edit] Trivia

Lindsay Lohan in her cameo.
Lindsay Lohan in her cameo.
  • Dustin Hoffman appears in the video rental store in a cameo as Jack Black talks about the score from The Graduate. According to Hoffman, this was unscripted and unexpected. He was going to Blockbuster for a movie, saw all the light and came over to see what was going on. He knew director Nancy Meyers, who scripted a scene with him in it.
  • Lindsay Lohan and James Franco give uncredited appearances in the movie trailer Cameron Diaz's character is working on.
  • In the video rental store, Miles (Jack Black) sings the theme tune of Driving Miss Daisy by Hans. Hans Zimmer also composed and produced the score for The Holiday.
  • The drink held by Jack Black is the famous "Ice Blended" from The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf, recognizable for the purple straw and the drawing on the cup.
  • When Iris goes into Arthur's house, she notices he has an Oscar statuette amongst his work, to which she says "wow!". This could be a reference to Kate Winslet's five Oscar nominations, none of which were successful. The Oscar shown in Arthur's house is actually a replica with some small changes, as it is unlawful to display a real Oscar in a movie.
  • Eli Wallach's character Arthur Abbott (a Hollywood screenwriter) described a meet-cute by saying "Say a man and a woman both need something to sleep in and both go to the same men's pajama department. The man says to the salesman, I just need bottoms, and the woman says, I just need a top. They look at each other and that's the meet-cute." It's a reference to the film Bluebeard's Eighth Wife (1938) by Ernst Lubitsch with Claudette Colbert and Gary Cooper, and the writers Charlton Andrews, Charles Brackett, Alfred Savoir and Billy Wilder.[4]
  • The movie Iris chooses when looking through Amanda's DVDs is Punch-Drunk Love, the Two Disc Special Edition.[5]
  • According to Box Office Mojo The Holiday made just over $200,000,000 gross at the global box office, $63,000,000 of which in the United States and Canada.
  • This is the second time Kate Winslet has played a character who has been about to commit suicide whilst in a state of extreme distress when fate intervenes. The first being Titanic.
  • In one scene, Amanda is sitting in bed watching Little Britain on BBC1 when an advertisement comes on. This is inaccurate as the BBC does not air advertisements. However the BBC-owned TV station UKTV does.
  • According to a radio interview on BBC Radio 1, the song "Kill the Director" by The Wombats was written about this film . From the lyrics "this is no Bridget Jones" and according to the radio interview, they hated the film, and hence decided to write a song about it.[citation needed]

[edit] References

  1. ^ RottenTomatoes
  2. ^ MetaCritic
  3. ^ The Hollywood Reporter published Dec. 1, 2006
  4. ^ Movie connections at IMDb
  5. ^ Punch-Drunk Love at IMDb

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

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Films directed by Nancy Meyers