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 turn by 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 rarities—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 e-mail. 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 quaint, picturesque Rosehill Cottage (which 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 (a la 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 is paired with 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 of 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 shone 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 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.
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Horny twentysomethings 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, complete with 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 physically stunning newcomer Marco Dapper)—who will stop hearts and raise libidos. Troy (as in Troy from Illinois) is a superb example of a Midwestern corn-fed hunk who is not 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.
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Movie Opening of Note: The History Boys, Alan Bennett’s play that won six Tony awards, comes to the screen this Friday with most of its young, attractive original cast, led by the inestimable character actor Richard Griffiths, intact. The film has been described as an English version of Dead Poet’s Society—albeit one with gay characters. Queer director Nicholas Hytner (who also did the honors for The Object of My Affection and The Madness of King George) helmed the film.
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DVD Release of Note: A feature-length DVD release of highlights of last summer’s Gay Games VII, which were held in Chicago, is now out. The rousing two-hour disc includes a terrific overview of the opening and closing ceremonies (with snippets of performances from Margaret Cho, Andy Bell, Cyndi Lauper and others, as well as plenty of stirring and beautiful moments of these once-in-a-lifetime spectacles). There’s also, naturally, plenty of coverage of the sporting events and those inspired athletes who came from around the world. The disc features some nice bonuses as well—including a sweet, sad tribute to founder Tom Waddell and an extensive slide show overview of the entire event. A bargain at under $20, the disc can be ordered online through its official distributor, Wolfe Video (www.wolfevideo.net) or at www.gaygameschicago.org.
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