A proposed movie-theater-spouse award names John Krasinski during Blunt’s hookup scene; the discussion imagines partners’ discomfort and reports removed nudity. It remains a proposed category.
After Damon could not play the lead, the role was steered to Affleck; using Damon as the brother is proposed as an improvement. — Bill Simmons
Chalamet reportedly auditioned for Patrick and did not get the role.
Hedges is preferred to Chalamet for frame, class background and Massachusetts credibility, despite both actors’ New York backgrounds.
Krasinski is reported as connected to the original idea and initially floated for the role before Lonergan completed the film.
Krasinski remains an uncertain dramatic fit because this kind of acting had not been seen from him, though A Quiet Place is offered as reason not to rule him out; Affleck’s Gone Baby Gone work supplies a contrasting precedent. — Bill Simmons
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
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.
The unnamed newsroom friend who tells Iris nobody is friends with an ex who cheats on them is liked for extreme real talk; Ed Burns, Cameron Diaz's ex, is added to the list with an explicit 'I would say he wins it', and Eli Wallach is also chosen as so great in the movie.
The award is explained as the heat check, coming in for a short time and going off; Kate Winslet has three men, the ex Jasper (Rufus Sewell, a waste of time), Arthur and Jack Black, but Jack Black is billed as a star and Eli Wallach is not on the poster, which becomes the new eligibility definition.
Dustin Hoffman is questioned since he is in for five seconds, and it is hard because these people are in it so briefly; one pick lands on Lohan out of a soft spot for her.
The guest's pick is Katherine Hahn, out of love for her: the character name Bristol Farms is such an L.A. name, and her small part here looks tiny next to all the later work; there are a lot of great small roles for extremely famous people. — Kari Simmons
Homeexchange.com is the first item: living in someone else's home on a whim was not mainstream in 2006, maybe a two-week rental, but it has been totally validated by the last five years and is as seamless now as the movie made it look, with the show-up-and-see-what-you-find thrill or the wish you had picked a hotel.
Los Angeles at Christmas is truly underrated and the movie did it justice: quiet with no traffic, a coat at night and warm sun by day, Christmas music playing; the drive onto Sunset off the PCH with no cars is saved as a nitpick.
Celebrating the art of movie trailers has aged well: in 2006 trailers were still corny voiceover work, but the film knew they mattered, the Ringer now runs a trailer bracket, Cameron Diaz's 'that's why they pay me the big bucks' moment with the Lindsay Lohan trailer shows the cynical side, and 'now it looks like a hit' with Katherine Hahn and John Krasinski shows the movie invested in the changing landscape.
The Hans Zimmer score is very lovely and the soundtrack, with the White Stripes for the bed dance, James Taylor's Merry Little Christmas, the Phil Spector Christmas album and a 'Neretha Franklin' (as transcribed) cover of You Send Me, cues every song perfectly; Zoe, picked up from the train, recognized the music in the car, and it conveys a feeling that is very Nancy Meyers.
Jude Law's handsomeness is timeless, as is how he dresses, the hot tweedy British guy; men in L.A. all dress the same, so England or Boston professors would raise the odds, and only Once Upon a Time in Hollywood is as defined by one person's hotness.
Jude Law is objectively hotter than Hugh Grant but gives the same tweedy appeal as Grant in Four Weddings and a Funeral, which one host calls the hottest Hugh Grant ever at a too-impressionable age, while another never believed Grant as a heartthrob; the panel agrees Jude Law definitely aged the best.
The L.A. house has aged very well: the exterior is a Wallace Neff house in San Marino by Pasadena, seen when Cameron Diaz talks to Ed Burns from the balcony, classic Spanish architecture and a dream L.A. home.
Anna Wintour (transcribed 'Anna Wintor') reportedly liked the movie despite initial skepticism and enjoyed Streep for her decisive nature. — Amanda Dobbins
Tabloid talk about her divorce is attributed to the New York Post; the movie is said to have rehabilitated her and corrected the book's portrayal, so she probably likes it. — Amanda Dobbins
She reportedly warned designers invited to cameo that they would be banished from the magazine; nobody knows whether that is true, but Vogue and other magazines avoided mentioning the book. — Bill Simmons
Streep was not on the cover of Vogue for a very long time after the movie, though she was recently. — Amanda Dobbins
Six years after filming, Stanley Tucci married Felicity Blunt, Emily Blunt's sister; the transcript also has a belief that he broke up with 'E. Falco' for her. — Bill Simmons
The first bag Miranda carries is a Prada bag. — Bill Simmons
Giselle agreed to be in the movie only if she did not have to play a model. — Bill Simmons
Costuming cost over a million dollars despite designer loans, under Patricia Field of Sex and the City, who got an Oscar nomination; the panel thinks that is low. — Bill Simmons
Streep told Variety in 2006 she took Miranda's soft speaking style from Clint Eastwood, who never raises his voice so everyone leans in; the whisper is called what makes the performance. — Bill Simmons
Bosses who stay insanely calm are said to destabilize the people around them. — Amanda Dobbins
Miranda's line about everybody wanting to be 'us' originally said 'me'; Streep changed it as too self-involved. — Bill Simmons
A double standard is argued: men respected as difficult method actors versus Streep and Hathaway labeled problem children, though Streep is called an anomaly nobody can overrule. — Amanda Dobbins
A deleted scene where Andy saves Miranda and Miranda thanks her was cut for making her seem likable; it surfaced online two years ago, and one panelist refuses to watch it, likening it to the Almost Famous extended cut. — Bill Simmons
In one more piece of research, John Krasinski has reportedly watched the film 75 times, which ties one panelist. — Bill Simmons
