It’s A Jolly Ollyday With Mary(not so much)

So I said I would go, and of course I did. Saturday went to The Holiday with my friend Siobhan. I told her how the movie was getting slammed left and right, but she said she still wanted to go. (By the way, there is a preview for a movie where Hugh Grant plays a washed up popstar from essentially a Duran Duran style band. He plays a Simon LeBon type. He’s supposed to go on some reality show of washed up celebrities and then somebody wants him to write a song. He starts to write it but he’s having trouble, and the girl who’s watering his plants absent mindedly helps out. Who is that girl? It’s Drew Barrymore. These people know their audiences, everyone wanted to see this movie immediately. Myself included. Trust me, it’s ro-co gold.)

Long and short of it? The movie is not that bad. (It’s not that good either.) But it wasn’t the trainwreck reported. In fact, everyone in it is good except Cameron Diaz. Which led me to wonder, is Cameron Diaz bad or is it the writing? Because Cameron has been in two great romantic comedies. 1) My Best Friend’s Wedding, and 2) Something About Mary. But… and this is crucial. She doesn’t carry either movie. It’s more Julia’s movie and Ben Stiller’s movie. So maybe she is awful.

There’s some good scenes though—one where Jack Black hums the themes for various movies in the video store(he’s a film composer, natch). A running bit where Cameron imagines her life as movie trailer(that’s HER job, she makes movie previews). But altogether Jack Black gets the short shrift as the attentions of Kate Winslet are split between him and this old codger who lives next door (played by Eli Wallach). It’s kinda charming but also, I feel like we are robbed of precious Jack Black Magic Time. So that’s disappointing. In a semi-crappy movie, you need all the magic you can get.

And you know, Jude Law IS charming. But this is where Cameron just sort of falls short. I think in order to work in a ro-co, the girl must seem like someone we can be. And I don’t think anyone ever relates to Cameron Diaz. She’s too Barbie pretty. Too 1000 watt smiles. This is bad for her to play a lead in romantic comedy. She should be playing the person the lead’s cad boyfriend cheats with—that’s more her style.

There’s also some bad scenes. There’s anothing running bit with Cameron where she can’t cry, and of course, at some point she actually cries. Well, it’s lame. Maybe with someone else, I could see this working. But it felt cheesy. And they definitely milked it. There’s also a scene where Kate marvels at how large Cameron’s house is. And it’s cheese, but at the same time, Kate wills her way through it.

Jude Law has two kids too(can ro-co’s have spoilers? Maybe. This is a spoiler! Sorry.) And they steal the one big scene they are in—why couldn’t we have more of them? The shot of the two kids and Jude and Cameron laying down looking up at the “stars” in their tent, it was good moment. Too bad there weren’t more of them.

So all in all? I enjoyed it, but mostly, I am just waiting till Valentine’s Day.

(P.S. Natasha, I did not go to see Must Love Dogs in the theatre. I saw it at home on cable and it was not good. My ro-co taste is immaculate!)