Movie Review Black Los Angeles

BlackNLA Movie Reviews

*****THE REEL DEAL: Reviewz from the Street*****

by Edwardo Jackson

BIASES: Early 30s black male; frustrated screenwriter who favors action, comedy, and glossy, big budget movies over indie flicks, kiddie flicks, and weepy Merchant Ivory fare

THE HOLIDAY (PG-13)

MOVIE BIASES: If it's Nancy Meyers, it's gotta be good.

MAJOR PLAYERS: Cameron Diaz (Charlie's Angels), Kate Winslet (Titanic), Jude Law (Alfie), Jack Black (Nacho Libre), music by Hans Zimmer (Crimson Tide), and writer/director Nancy Meyers (Something's Gotta Give)

LOGLINE: Looking to escape doomed non-relationships, Amanda (Diaz) and Iris (Winslet) decide to change lives for three weeks around Christmas time, with rich, LA-based movie trailer impresario Amanda going across The Pond to stay at "Daily Telegraph" columnist Iris' house, and vice versa. Not only does culture clash ensue, but also love in the unlikeliest forms (enter Iris' brother Graham (Law) for Amanda and Amanda's trailer composer Miles (Black) for Iris).

THE DEAL: Set to a wildly romantic, slightly onerous Zimmer score, "The Holiday" is that satisfying, touching, somewhat empowering (if not a touch overwrought) romantic comedy we've come to trust Meyers to deliver us like Chinese takeout. The dialogue is cute and honest, the relationships believable but complicated, and the characters humane and endearing: it's a pleasant film. Self-deprecatingly charming cad Jude Law plays himself, a genetically blessed and perma-tanned
womanizer who has the tendency to "hurt women simply by being myself." So of course he's perfect for Diaz's neurotic movie trailer queen who not only hears her life narrated in trailer-style, Movie Voice voiceovers, but also is so repressed that she has never cried. Ever. Jack Black restrains his signature mania (if not his eyebrows – man, do they have a life of their own or what!) while Eli Wallach (The Godfather, Part III) turns up as a veteran screenwriter who unexpectedly forges a place in their hearts with his encyclopedic knowledge of good, uplifting old-time movies. However, it's my unilateral love affair with Kate Winslet (yes, she's been on The Wall since Titanic), who's just so lovely, so earnest, so English that she charms with each frame, which sustains this movie. Her lovelorn Iris, helplessly "friends" with an ex-boyfriend she just can't shake, is such a relatable, championable character, she wins you over from her opening monologue. Sure, you may debate the (Sense and) sensibility of her unrequited love of a taken man or the mere suspension of disbelief
needed behind the feasibility of doing a "home exchange" with a complete and utter stranger, but that's overthinking a romantic comedy and its character. Just give me my holiday snow, a senseless, shoehorned Run (in the snow, no less) toward the one you love and call it a day. A happy "Holiday."

@@@ REELS
(THREE REELS)
It's pretty hot – go give it a shot.

Like what you read? Agree/disagree with The Reel Deal? Think he's talkin' out his...HUSH YO' MOUF! (I'm only talkin' about The Reel Deal!) Email him at ReelReviewz@aol.com!

Edwardo Jackson is the author of the novels EVER AFTER and NEVA HAFTA, (Villard/Random House), a writer for UrbanFilmPremiere.com, and an LA-based screenwriter. Visit his website at www.edwardojackson.com




			BlackNLA Movie Reviews ***THE REEL DEAL: Reviewz from the Street*** by Edwardo Jackson BIASES: Early 30s black male; frustrated screenwriter who favors action, comedy, and glossy, big budget movies over indie flicks, kiddie flicks, and weepy Merchant Ivory fare THE HOLIDAY (PG-13) MOVIE BIASES: If it's Nancy Meyers, it's gotta be good. MAJOR PLAYERS: Cameron Diaz (Charlie's Angels), Kate Winslet (Titanic), Jude Law (Alfie), Jack Black (Nacho Libre), music by Hans Zimmer (Crimson Tide), and writer/director Nancy Meyers (Something's Gotta Give) LOGLINE: Looking to escape doomed non-relationships, Amanda (Diaz) and Iris (Winslet) decide to change lives for three weeks around Christmas time, with rich, LA-based movie trailer impresario Amanda going across The Pond to stay at "Daily Telegraph" columnist Iris' house, and vice versa. Not only does culture clash ensue, but also love in the unlikeliest forms (enter Iris' brother Graham (Law) for Amanda and Amanda's trailer composer Miles (Black) for Iris). THE DEAL: Set to a wildly romantic, slightly onerous Zimmer score, "The Holiday" is that satisfying, touching, somewhat empowering (if not a touch overwrought) romantic comedy we've come to trust Meyers to deliver us like Chinese takeout. The dialogue is cute and honest, the relationships believable but complicated, and the characters humane and endearing: it's a pleasant film. Self-deprecatingly charming cad Jude Law plays himself, a genetically blessed and perma-tanned womanizer who has the tendency to "hurt women simply by being myself." So of course he's perfect for Diaz's neurotic movie trailer queen who not only hears her life narrated in trailer-style, Movie Voice voiceovers, but also is so repressed that she has never cried. Ever. Jack Black restrains his signature mania (if not his eyebrows – man, do they have a life of their own or what!) while Eli Wallach (The Godfather, Part III) turns up as a veteran screenwriter who unexpectedly forges a place in their hearts with his encyclopedic knowledge of good, uplifting old-time movies. However, it's my unilateral love affair with Kate Winslet (yes, she's been on The Wall since Titanic), who's just so lovely, so earnest, so English that she charms with each frame, which sustains this movie. Her lovelorn Iris, helplessly "friends" with an ex-boyfriend she just can't shake, is such a relatable, championable character, she wins you over from her opening monologue. Sure, you may debate the (Sense and) sensibility of her unrequited love of a taken man or the mere suspension of disbelief needed behind the feasibility of doing a "home exchange" with a complete and utter stranger, but that's overthinking a romantic comedy and its character. Just give me my holiday snow, a senseless, shoehorned Run (in the snow, no less) toward the one you love and call it a day. A happy "Holiday." @@@ REELS (THREE REELS) It's pretty hot – go give it a shot. Like what you read? Agree/disagree with The Reel Deal? Think he's talkin' out his...HUSH YO' MOUF! (I'm only talkin' about The Reel Deal!) Email him at ReelReviewz@aol.com! Edwardo Jackson is the author of the novels EVER AFTER and NEVA HAFTA, (Villard/Random House), a writer for UrbanFilmPremiere.com, and an LA-based screenwriter. Visit his website at www.edwardojackson.com © 2004, Edwardo Jackson