Knight at the Movies Archives
Nancy Meyers continues her winning streak with The Holiday while the appeal of the first gay sequel is obvious from the film poster
After 20-some years of turning out popular but not terribly taxing comedies (Private Benjamin, Baby Boom, all star remakes of Father
of the Bride
and The Parent Trap), writer-director Nancy Meyers finally hit a home run with both critics and audiences with 2004’s
Something’s Got To Give.  The movie, which featured sparkling performances from its expert cast (including an Oscar nominated one
by star Diane Keaton) allowed Meyers to create a piece that fully utilized all her talents.  Now, with
The Holiday, she continues the
streak.  It’s a long but skillfully made picture that is that rarest of rarity’s – a romantic comedy for mature adults.

In the world of Nancy Meyers’ characters, love is the only thing they haven’t quite figured out.  They live in luxurious homes
beautifully furnished with stunning views of the beach or the countryside, drive expensive cars, eat in fancy restaurants, take for
granted their plush designer wardrobes, and desperately check the latest in high tech gadgets to see if “he” or “she” has left a text
message or an email.  Many of them – the women especially – are work obsessed with high powered careers that distract them from
their “guy problems.”

In
The Holiday, Amanda (Cameron Diaz) is the character with these particular facets.  She’s an editor of movie trailers who finds out
her boyfriend (Edward Burns) has been cheating.  Tossing him out of her palatial California home, Amanda decides she needs to get
out of town for Christmas and logs on to her computer to see what’s out there in the Ethernet.  Because this is a Nancy Meyers
movie, at just that moment over in England Iris (Kate Winslet), a career gal with similar man problems is doing the exact same
thing.  Iris lives in the quaint, picturesque Rosehill Cottage (it seems to have been inspired by a Thomas Kinkade painting).  Before
you can say “city mouse/country mouse” both agree to switch houses for the holidays and when each arrives at their destination the
real picture, in which we are essentially given two romantic comedies for the price of one, begins.

Amanda is so controlled that she hasn’t been able to cry in years while Iris is such an emotional klutz (ala Bridget Jones) that she’s
weeping at the mere mention of her rotten boyfriend’s name.  Naturally, both will find potential love interests that will help them on
their journey of self discovery (another important facet of Meyers’ pictures).  Amanda gets dreamy Jude Law and Iris the not so
dreamy but sweet and irresistibly funny Jack Black.  Black plays a composer of film scores and has the movie’s funniest (though
brief) sequence in which he hums the memorable theme music for several iconic pictures.  Being a huge fan of soundtrack
composers I loved finally seeing them given some onscreen recognition (and though I’ve never been a huge Hans Zimmer booster,
I liked his music score this time out).

The men, with the supporting parts, have an easier time of it while Winslet and Diaz, especially, struggle to find their footing (though
eventually both do find traction).  There will be complaints about this and that the picture takes too long to get going.  But I found
Meyers’ willingness to resist the “hilarious” pratfalls and gross out gags of most rom-coms in favor of a more relaxed style just about
irresistible.  She’s not pandering to those attention deficit younger audiences and
The Holiday, like Something’s Got to Give, clearly
benefits from her expert control.  Let Meyers take the wheel of this big budget, deluxe cruise ship of a movie and the rewards will be
satisfying – predictable but satisfying.

The Holiday is the kind of well made comedy that Jean Arthur, Barbara Stanwyck or Irene Dunne would have shined in and Meyers
acknowledges this connection to the past by adding another key character, the elderly screenwriter (a sweet yet tart Eli Wallach) who
gives Iris a movie must see list that includes
The Lady Eve and The Awful Truth.  I think with first Something’s Got to Give and now The
Holiday Meyers has created a modern day equivalent of those classics and it’s not a stretch to imagine a similar list being made 40
years down the road that includes both.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Horny 20 something’s Kyle (openly gay former American Idol contestant Jim Verraros who originally hails from Crystal Lake), Tiffany
(sexpot blonde Rebekah Kochan), and Gwen (queer cinema’s biggest fag hag, Emily Brooke Hands, she with the Lisa Simpson
whine), are all back in what is being touted as the world’s first gay sequel,
Eating Out 2: Sloppy Seconds.  But it’s the object of
their joint lust – Troy (played by physical stunner, newcomer Marco Dapper) – who will stop hearts and raise libidos from 20 paces.  
Troy (as in Troy from Illinois) is a superb example of a Midwestern corn fed hunk who is not in the least ashamed of dropping his
drawers and sharing his God given attributes at a moment’s notice.  Like its
predecessor, Eating Out 2 is silly and sexy and has
enough of both those items and the requisite bitchy one liners to hold one’s attention for the duration.  Mink Stole as Kyle’s queer
loving mother, a role that seems a backhanded homage to the character played by Edie Masssey in
Female Trouble, is a bonus.
Second Helpings:
The Holiday-Eating Out 2: Sloppy Seconds
12-06-06 Windy City Times Knight at the Movies Column
By Richard Knight, Jr.