The Holiday
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| The Holiday | |
 Theatrical release poster |
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| Directed by | Nancy Meyers |
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| Produced by | Nancy Meyers |
| Written by | Nancy Meyers |
| Starring | Cameron Diaz Kate Winslet Jude Law Jack Black Eli Wallach Edward Burns Rufus Sewell Shannyn Sossamon Bill Macy Shelley Berman Jay Simpson (actor) Dustin Hoffman |
| Music by | Hans Zimmer |
| Cinematography | Dean Cundey |
| Editing by | Joe Hutshing |
| Distributed by | Columbia Pictures (US) Universal Pictures (International) |
| Release date(s) | December 8, 2006 |
| Running time | 138 min. |
| Country |  United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $85 million |
| Gross revenue | $205,135,175 (Worldwide) |
The Holiday is a 2006 American romantic comedy film distributed by Columbia Pictures in the US and Universal Studios outside the US, starring Cameron Diaz, Kate Winslet, Jude Law, and Jack Black. The story involves two strangers who agree to swap homes temporarily.
The two main characters are Amanda, a highly successful editor of movie trailers in Los Angeles, and Iris, a lovesick society column editor for The Daily Telegraph newspaper in England. The story is set in motion when each of them suffers a heartache: Amanda discovers that her boyfriend cheated on her, while the object of Iris's unrequited love announces his engagement at the office Christmas party. Seeking an escape, Iris proposes the home swap on the Internet, posting an ad about her quaint cottage in the English countryside. Her offer is eagerly accepted by Amanda, who lives in a luxurious home in L.A. but is stressed over her break-up. (There are also hints that Amanda is a workaholic; there is a running gag that she imagines her life as being narrated by movie trailer narrator Hal Douglas.)
At first, the swap seems uneven; Iris revels in the luxury of Amanda's L.A. home, while Amanda suffers a series of disappointments in Surrey. Yet things turn around for Amanda when she meets Iris's brother Graham. Both Amanda and Graham intend to have a one-night stand, but a romance develops.
Meanwhile, Iris befriends movie composer Miles and elderly Arthur Abbott; Arthur, it turns out, worked as a screenwriter during the Golden Age of Hollywood. The friendship between Iris and Miles turns romantic after Miles learns of his girlfriend's infidelity.
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[edit] Cast
- Cameron Diaz as Amanda Woods
- Kate Winslet as Iris Simpkins
- Jude Law as Graham Simpkins
- Jack Black as Miles Dumont
- Eli Wallach as Arthur Abbott
- Edward Burns as Ethan Ebbers
- Rufus Sewell as Jasper Bloom
- Miffy Englefield as Sophie
- Emma Pritchard as Olivia
- Sarah Parish as Hannah
- Shannyn Sossamon as Maggie
- Bill Macy as Ernie
- Shelley Berman as Norman
- Kathryn Hahn as Bristol
- John Krasinski as Ben
- Leanne Wilson as Nancy Myers
- Alex O'Loughlin as Kissing Couple
- Odette Yustman as Kissing Couple
- Bundle Williams as Girl in Pub
- James Franco as Himself
- Dustin Hoffman (uncredited) as Himself
- Lindsay Lohan as Herself
[edit] Location
The film was partially filmed in Los Angeles, Godalming, Surrey and the nearby villages of Wonersh and Shere. Exterior scenes of the house of Cameron Diaz's character in the film were shot in San Marino, California. The interior sets for Amanda's house were built on a sound stage and cost approximately $1 million, without exterior walls, a roof, plumbing, heating and electricity.
The first location that Cameron Diaz's character clicks on for a vacation location - The Cotswolds - is the region in which Kate Winslet lives in real life.
When Iris (Kate Winslet) is driving Arthur (Eli Wallach) home, he asks her what part of England she is from. She says "Surrey", to which he replies "Cary Grant was from Surrey" and explains he knows this because Cary Grant told him once. He was actually from Bristol, some 100 miles to the west of Surrey.
[edit] Music
[edit] Box office
The film grossed $205,135,175, worldwide, and is considered a financial success.
[edit] Trivia
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Lists of miscellaneous information should be avoided. Please relocate any relevant information into appropriate sections or articles. (February 2009) |
- A dvd copy of this movie was given by Mark Sanford to his mistress. He mentioned in a romantic email that this movie was particularly resonant to their situation. [1]
- Dustin Hoffman appears in the video rental store in an uncredited cameo as Jack Black talks about the score from The Graduate. According to Hoffman, this was unscripted and unexpected. He was going to Blockbuster for a movie, saw all the light and came over to see what was going on. He knew director Nancy Meyers, who scripted a scene with him in it.
- Lindsay Lohan and James Franco give uncredited appearances in the movie trailer Cameron Diaz's character is working on.
- In the video rental store, Miles (Jack Black) sings the theme tune of Driving Miss Daisy by "Hans". Hans Zimmer also composed and produced the score for The Holiday. Jack Black later spoofed the movie in Be Kind, Rewind.
- When Iris goes into Arthur's house, she notices he has an Oscar statuette amongst his work, to which she says "wow!". This could be a reference to Kate Winslet's five Oscar nominations, none of which were successful. The Oscar shown in Arthur's house is actually a replica with some small changes. Academy rules forbid statuettes to "be used as a stage property or article of set dressing in any stage, television, video or motion picture production not produced by the Academy" although "Licensed exceptions will be considered under unusual circumstances".[2]
- Eli Wallach's character Arthur Abbott (a Hollywood screenwriter) described a meet-cute by saying "Say a man and a woman both need something to sleep in and both go to the same men's pajama department. The man says to the salesman, I just need bottoms, and the woman says, I just need a top. They look at each other and that's the meet-cute." It's a reference to the film Bluebeard's Eighth Wife (1938) by Ernst Lubitsch with Claudette Colbert and Gary Cooper, and the writers Charlton Andrews, Charles Brackett, Alfred Savoir and Billy Wilder.[3]
- The movie Iris chooses when looking through Amanda's DVDs is Punch-Drunk Love, the Two Disc Special Edition.[4]
- According to Box Office Mojo The Holiday made just over $200,000,000 gross at the global box office, $63,000,000 of which in the United States and Canada.
- This is the second time Kate Winslet has played a character who has been about to commit suicide whilst in a state of extreme distress when fate intervenes. The first was Titanic (1997 film).
- The classic movie that Kate Winslet is watching - after Arthur Abbott's (Eli Wallach) recommendation - is His Girl Friday, a 1940 screwball comedy starring Cary Grant as a newspaper editor who attempts to keep his ex-wife and fellow reporter (played by Rosalind Russell) from marrying someone else.
- In one scene, Amanda is sitting in bed watching Little Britain on BBC1 when an advertisement comes on. This is inaccurate as the BBC does not air advertisements. However the BBC-owned TV station UKTV does.
- According to a radio interview on BBC Radio 1, the song "Kill the Director" by The Wombats was written about this film . From the lyrics "this is no Bridget Jones" and according to the radio interview, they hated the film, and hence decided to write a song about it.[citation needed]
- The song "Star Girl" by the British-Pop band McFly was played in the background of the movie for advertisement for the band.
- Both Amanda and Graham have Eames chairs in their offices.
[edit] References
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
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Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: The Holiday |
- Official site
- The Holiday at the Internet Movie Database
- The Holiday at Allmovie
- The Holiday at Rotten Tomatoes
- The Holiday at Box Office Mojo
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