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Home » Recreation And Sports Articles » Nancy Meyers Comes Up With A Winner A Romantic Comedy That Really Works

Nancy Meyers Comes Up With a Winner: A Romantic Comedy that Really Works

The Holiday - 3 Stars (Good)

Christmas is coming soon and everybody is busy getting ready for another holiday season. A movie can be great comic relief. We want to be entertained and interested by a story that keeps us attentive and has a happy ending.

Nancy Meyers delivers what we need as the writer/director of "The Holiday", a romantic comedy with Cameron Diaz, Kate Winslet, Jude Law, Jack Black and Eli Wallach. Described by one viewer as the "Swiss Chocolate of Romantic Comedies", it certainly qualifies as its only winning award was the Teen Choice Award for Best Chick Flick.

Actually, I found The Holiday to be a tad more than just a chick flick. As a student of relationships it provided a happy ending to the dilemma of women who get involved in a relationship with men who almost appear interested but invariably cheat.

The premise of The Holiday is pretty simple. Stuck in impossible relationships with two-timing men, Los Angeles resident Amanda (Cameron Diaz) and Londoner Iris (Kate Winslet) decide to swap homes over the Christmas holiday in an effort to forget their troubles.

Both Amanda and Iris find themselves in unusual circumstances and are forced to come to grips with who they are and what they want in a relationship. Amanda must look inward to find the emotion that escaped her in her youth, and Iris must look outward to get over being self-absorbed in her perfect relationship that does not exist.

Amanda, the owner and creative force of a movie-trailers editing firm in face-paced Tinseltown, dumps her cheat Ethan (Edward Burns) and finds herself even lonelier in a cottage in Surrey (near London) when she meets Iris' brother Graham (Jude Law), a widower with two daughters. She has not cried tears since the breakup of her parents when she was a teen.

Iris is a writer of some note with The Telegraph newspaper in London. She pines for Jasper Bloom (Rufus Sewell), who uses her for three years but then gets engaged to a co-worker at The Telegraph. Jasper is a self-centered, self-absorbed cad with no heart and no mind who satisfies his most needy body part. Iris is too in love to see straight.

Iris meets Arthur Abbott (Eli Wallach), an accomplished movie writer in Beverly Hills who you would love to have as your great grandfather. Arthur tells Iris that "in the movies we have leading ladies and we have best friends. You, I can tell, are a leading lady, but for some reason you are behaving like the best friend."

Eventually Iris meets Miles (Jack Black), a film composer who suffers from the same ill-fated relationship troubles as Iris, and the two form a gentle bond of assured happiness.

The chemistry between Amanda and Graham is excellent, and The Holiday benefits from some great Christmas music and good direction by Nancy Meyers.

Guys are not going to go mushy over this film but would do well to pay attention to what girls really want. The Holiday is a great film for the Christmas season, it will not stress your emotions but will fill you up with good feelings.

Copyright © 2007 Ed Bagley

And here is another random article you might be interested in...

How To Best Handle Health Insurance Plan Changes

Many economists have suggested and recent economic data indicates that the economy is steadily moving in the right direction. A combination of several factors has no doubt had a negative impact on the economy over the last several years.

The recent state of the economy, combined with the increasing cost of healthcare, has made it difficult for all size employers to continue to offer the same level of employee benefits. In the case of health insurance, future plan modifications may be necessary over the next few years.

After much consideration, these modifications may take the form of increasing deductibles, out of pocket maximums, office visit copays, and prescription copays. Employees may also be required to increase their contribution amount. A vast majority of employees understand the current strain facing employers. Employees are particularly aware of the difficulties faced by medium and small business owners.

If you find that plan changes are inevitable, several aspects are very important to pay attention to when modifying your group health insurance coverage. Modify the parts of your plan that provide a savings while having the least impact on your employees. Make sure the changes are fair to both the employer and employee. Develop and execute a strategy that clearly communicates the plan changes as well as the reasons for the changes.

When the outlook for your business does improve, your organization's ability to capitalize will greatly be dependent on your ability to attract and retain productive employees during difficult economic times.