movies: the holiday

Alas... Ma and I had officially run out of decent movies to see... at the cinema anyway, so we had to settle for a trip to the video store. Thank you $1 Tuesdays!

As usual we ummed and ahhhed wandering up and down the new releases looking valiantly for something that we a) hadn't already seen at the movies and more importantly, b) something we actually wanted to see. Never easy given the amount of movies we see in a year.

I grabbed The Holiday, since I remember thinking when we saw the trailer way back when that it could be worthwhile... I mean, Cameron Diaz, Kate Winslet, Jude Law, what's not to love... but then we both ummed and ahhhed some more, thinking that it might be slightly cringe-worthy in spots, and the addition of Jack Black to the cast list didn't help dissuade said feeling.

But it was either The Holiday or Flushed Away... and I just didn't know if I was up for CGI rats and toads... so we settled on The Holiday...

Turns out it was very much the right choice to make!

Okay, so it's not the most original plot (or rather plots, since it is in essence really two inter-cutting movies more or less) on the planet... although the whole "two stories" thing is pretty original, especially since there really isn't THAT much overlap for about 90% of the movie, but it's a romantic comedy... you know going into a romantic comedy that it's going to contain a) comedy (and if you're lucky it will actually be funny) and b) a romance where the two characters in question hook up by the end of the movie.

I will say that in this case the comedy parts of the movie was actually REALLY funny... Ma and I laughed slightly like crazy people on more than one occasion (always the bonus of watching a movie at home rather than in a movie theatre, you can talk during the movie, laugh like a mental patient... and in our case tonight, stop to look at the Blood Moon lunar eclipse... which, I gotta say, from the bit I did see... less impressive here in SA). I don't know if part of it was that you were flicking from Cameron and Jude's story to Kate and Jack's story, so they both kept feeling fresh and new as a result.

I did feel like there was more time and weight given to the Cameron and Jude story... and there might have been... as far as actual screen time goes, or maybe it just felt that way I don't know, but I guess that's liable to happen in the editing process... even if you fully intent the stories to be equal length it's not going to work out that way.

It is a very sweet movie though, and well worth picking up at the video store.

yani's rating: 3 movie trailer voice-overs out of 5