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The Rewatchables ·

The Holiday

year 2006decade 00sdirector Nancy Meyersgenre Drama
host Juliet Litmanhost Amanda Dobbinshost Kari Simmons
All 15 categories

Most Rewatchable Scene · 10:03

Cameron Diaz's drive into the village

The video store scene is the obvious nominee but nobody on the panel loves it: it is Jack Black's signature scene, at a Blockbuster that looks like the west side, explaining movies to Kate Winslet through their scores while Dustin Hoffman stands annoyed in the same row; the 'Where have you gone, Joe DiMaggio' clip is played, in which the dialogue says it was written for the movie as a score.

The key objection is that he is singing the scores rather than playing them, with vowels no other human has made; on a date it would be an absolute pass, yet it is still an iconic scene in the movie.

The film

The Holiday (2006)

Directed by Nancy Meyers · Drama

136 minutes

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Cast

Selected cast credits · Film reference

Cast credits have not been imported yet.

Everything from the episode

In the order the hosts got to it. Open a row for the discussion.

32:10

Casting What-Ifs

Nancy Meyers wrote the script with Kate Winslet and Cameron Diaz in mind and cast Jack Black very early; the Graham r...

Nancy Meyers wrote the script with Kate Winslet and Cameron Diaz in mind and cast Jack Black very early; the Graham role was adjusted for Jude Law

In the discussion (6)
Approx. transcript time · 00:32:10Read transcript
  • There are few casting what-ifs because Nancy Meyers insisted she wrote it with Kate Winslet and Cameron Diaz in mind and cast Jack Black very early; her quoted reasoning is that he is not Clark Gable but adorable and lovable, what most guys look like if they are lucky, and deserves a great girl, so she fixed him up with Kate Winslet.
  • The reply is that all of that is true except why make him sing weird movie scores like Driving Miss Daisy in a Blockbuster with goofy faces, which is a turn-off and lowering standards rather than everyman; if he were not coming off Tenacious D and School of Rock, when his persona was a guy who sings in movies, it might have been different.
  • The character is annoying, with a little overacting, a friend rather than someone to kiss; one host rooted for Kate Winslet to end up with Arthur, since Miles believes he is in a relationship with a dumb actress (played by 'Shannon Sossman' as transcribed, of 40 Days and 40 Nights) until five minutes before the end.
  • Counterpoint: the Cameron Diaz movie is better than the Kate Winslet movie, but a pretty, smart, funny girl liking a guy who seems to have no business dating her makes one host like them more; the objection is restated as the character and the lack of chemistry, not Jack Black's looks, and Kate Winslet, who is very good and makes acting look easy, is made to settle for the friend.
  • Interviews all insist Meyers had the two women in mind and wanted a character for someone like Jack Black; for Jude Law some things were changed, and the way Cameron Diaz and Nancy Meyers talk about him taking the role carries the subtext of whether Jude Law can play a good, appealing, endearing guy.
  • Writing a script for Cameron Diaz, Jude Law, Kate Winslet and Jack Black and simply getting them says a lot about Meyers's power, rare for any director let alone a woman director; or she is very good at controlling the narrative and would not let other names into the conversation.
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53:04

Half-Assed Internet Research

Dustin Hoffman wandered onto the Blockbuster shoot as a friend of Nancy Meyers; the chateau lunch interior is the Gre...

Dustin Hoffman wandered onto the Blockbuster shoot as a friend of Nancy Meyers; the chateau lunch interior is the Greystone Mansion; Iris's cottage was built in a field in Surrey with the interiors on soundstages; it snowed during the shoot; Amanda's house exterior is near the Huntington Gardens in San Marino; Iris is also the name of one of Jude Law's daughters

In the discussion (3)
Approx. transcript time · 00:53:04Read transcript
  • Dustin Hoffman was walking down the street, saw a movie shoot at a Blockbuster, and because Nancy Meyers is his friend they put him in the scene; it may have been in Larchmont, since there was a Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf next door back then.
  • The beautiful chateau lunch scene was filmed inside the Greystone Mansion with a different home as exterior; Kate Winslet's England house was completely built in a field in Surrey, with soundstages for the interiors, which is where much of the $85 million went, and it snowed during the shoot, which is rare.
  • The exterior of Cameron Diaz's house is near the Huntington Gardens in San Marino by Pasadena; Iris, Kate Winslet's character, is also the name of one of Jude Law's daughters, which one website suggested was deliberate but could not be confirmed; Iris and Graham sound like siblings.
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58:52

Recasting Couch

Jason Segel as Miles; Emilia Clarke as Iris; Kate Hudson as Amanda; Colin Firth as Graham, though no one is as hot as...

Jason Segel as Miles; Emilia Clarke as Iris; Kate Hudson as Amanda; Colin Firth as Graham, though no one is as hot as Jude Law; earlier, Matt Dillon or Jason Segel for Jack Black's role

In the discussion (4)
Approx. transcript time · 00:58:52Read transcript
  • Jason Segel is nominated for the Miles role and wins over a skeptic on the strength of his Dracula puppet opera; Emilia Clarke, Daenerys Targaryen, would be fantastic as Iris.
  • Kate Hudson could have been Cameron Diaz, contemporaneously accurate with the L.A.-ness and rom-com chops and maybe better at the sappiness, though that would mean McConaughey in Jude Law's job, which needs a British accent; Wedding Planner McConaughey is still loved.
  • Eddie Redmayne is rejected as not hot enough and too direct; Colin Firth could do it with Hugh Grant-style aloofness, having done the messed-up Love Actually plot where he is helpless and says I love you; but nobody is as hot, and the movie does not work without Jude Law, who brings it all together.
  • While still on casting, one host had an idea to recast Jack Black: Matt Dillon, good looking, slightly older and funny in Something About Mary and Beautiful Girls, though always a jerk and not plausibly musical; or Jason Segel, who sings, likes to be dramatic, and whose Knocked Up and Sarah Marshall characters would fit the movie.
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1:00:56

Picking Nits

A Telegraph wedding reporter owning that cottage; nobody has family at Christmas; Christmas Day and Boxing Day skippe...

A Telegraph wedding reporter owning that cottage; nobody has family at Christmas; Christmas Day and Boxing Day skipped; no vetting for the home swap; the bad-at-sex plot line; 'great' as Amanda's only adjective; Jude Law's daughters having cell phones; Jude Law too tan and too available; Iris's frumpy tan wardrobe; no rain, only snow; Santa Anas in December; the red bikini; the airport drive on the PCH; the driver who stops short of the cottage; everyone dropping their jobs

In the discussion (19)
Approx. transcript time · 01:00:56Read transcript
  • A wedding reporter for the Telegraph owning a picturesque cottage on par with the Brentwood mansion is a forever rom-com trope; the 40-minute commute is appreciated but not bought, unless it is family money.
  • Where are these people's families? Everyone just goes away for Christmas with no parents, siblings or obligations; Jude Law did not even know Kate Winslet was gone, though she made the plan the night before and tried to tell him; even Eli Wallach has no grandkids or nieces around.
  • For a movie called The Holiday with Christmas music and a Christmas Eve scene where Jack Black finds his girlfriend with someone else, Christmas Day is fast-forwarded through, Boxing Day is never mentioned, and there are no Christmas trees except at Jude Law's house; a Hanukkah dinner and the British sense of holiday as vacation may explain the broader appeal, but why skip Christmas Day.
  • There is no vetting process for the home swap: they are just IMing like AOL in 1999, a sweet meet cute reminiscent of You've Got Mail, with no key exchange, house cleaning or preparation, and an assumption that neither will rip the other's house apart.
  • Cameron Diaz's sex life as a plot line is baffling: her long-term boyfriend called her bad at sex and they stayed together, so why is she surprised he cheated; Jude Law then affirms her several times as a rebuke to the other guy; they had not had sex in a year, so what does he know.
  • Giving a competent character 'I'm really bad at sex' as her relatable flaw, like making rom-com women fall down, is called sexist and super weird; she raises it just before sex with a man she never expects to see again, and a solutions-oriented L.A. woman would have taken classes and done reading.
  • 'Great' is the only adjective Cameron Diaz's character knows, from the magical tent to the day; it is called bad writing, or a sign she lacks words for happiness and has not been around children, but the movie does not lean into her being a vapid L.A. person.
  • In 2006 Jude Law's daughters, both under five, have their own cell phones to call him; a mother on the panel says her kids got phones around 11 when they started club sports, and iPads would be more plausible when cell phones had been mainstream for only five years.
  • Jude Law randomly stays out all night at Cameron Diaz's while his kids are home, with grandparents mentioned but never seen; he is logistically too available; the phones are probably a basic error needed so the names on the phone make the Sophie and Olivia reveal work.
  • Craig pointed out that Jude Law is very tan for a man in England in mid-December, blamed on Talented Mr. Ripley eight years before; Kate Winslet's wardrobe is too many tans, whites and creams, Diane Keaton's Something's Gotta Give clothes made frumpy, even though she looks like old Hollywood glamour in the pool one-piece, which reads as bad studio notes about making her relatable.
  • It never rains in the movie, it only snows, which the director's commentary says never even sticks in England and had to be made to stick; London is paralyzed on the rare snow days, so give us the England rain, and Jude Law would still be hot wet.
  • Do the Santa Anas really last to December? Peak season is now, in November; they can happen but the film uses them because people do not know, and the commentary says they were added because Santa Anas blew during filming.
  • Jasper's line about the little red bikini that unties at the back makes no sense since all little bikinis tie at the back, unless she owns two red bikinis, one front-clasp and one tie-back.
  • The drive from the airport somehow ends up on the PCH heading south from Malibu, then Ocean onto San Vicente with a Sunset sign planted to make Santa Monica look like Bel Air; something was wrong there, but it is a great view.
  • The black-car driver refuses to drive down to the Cotswolds house, making her drag her suitcase a mile and a half in heels and nearly die, which never happens; Cameron Diaz reportedly called this her most physical film because of the running, and interviews fixated on her hitting her head on the beam.
  • How does Iris get up to her own home if the cab driver would not? She has Amanda's Mini since they exchange cars, but it does not track with the cab; the driver is not a five-star rating.
  • A late nitpick: they all have involved jobs and just drop everything, with Catherine Hahn, John Krasinski and the trailer people never heard from again; L.A. does shut down from mid-December to New Year's, but for a society reporter with Christmas Eve weddings and parties it is less believable.
  • During the scene discussion, Jude Law's daughters seemed too well adjusted for having lost their mother a year ago, flagged for the nitpick section.
  • During aged-best, pulling onto Sunset off the PCH from the airport with no cars around was flagged as a nitpick for later.
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1:17:31

Probably Unanswerable Questions

Could Amanda be a stepmom? Would she move to England and stay? Does Graham travel with his glasses? Would Iris really...

Could Amanda be a stepmom? Would she move to England and stay? Does Graham travel with his glasses? Would Iris really let Jack Black pick something from her eyelash? Were two suitcases enough for Amanda's wardrobe? Did she buy the outfit she wore to Graham's house?

In the discussion (5)
Approx. transcript time · 01:17:31Read transcript
  • Cameron Diaz's character Amanda as a stepmom: nobody can imagine it; she would dress the girls in cute clothes and try hard, but it would be tough; perhaps she moves to England, wonders what she did, and works through it rather than flying home to her beautiful house and high-profile career, since she was unhappy there and already came back once.
  • Does Jude Law leave his glasses at his sister's house or travel with them for any big night out? He is assumed to be a low-grade, on-off glasses wearer, a dad around 40, with them in his suit pocket, and he looks so hot in them.
  • Would anyone let a stranger who just drove through the door in, or let Jack Black, in the Santa Ana winds, lean right in breathing on Kate Winslet's face to pick something from her eyelash? The hosts would recoil.
  • Were Cameron Diaz's two suitcases enough for five jackets, bulky shoes and boots, even allowing for compact light cashmere layers?
  • Did she buy the outfit she wore to his house, a long pencil skirt with a thick rhinestone belt and a beautiful top, since she expected no men there? She only dresses in pajamas or structured formal clothes, and maybe she packed everything she owns with weird expectations of England.
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