Romantic comedies tend to be very formulaic. A girl meets a boy, girl and boy have a problem, girl and boy resolve their problem, girl and boy live happily ever after. The Holiday, written and directed by Nancy Meyers, follows, for the most part, just such a plot. Only, Meyers is not content with this plot playing out once, she has to do it two times no less.

Amanda is a Hollywood movie trailer editor. She often sees her life through her work. She and her boyfriend break up at the beginning of the movie because she never wants to have sex and he has an affair. She can also never cry because her dad left her mother when she was a teenager. In short, she's cold. Iris works on a London newspaper and is hopelessly in love with a colleague who has just gotten engaged to another woman. Never mind that she has been in love with him for three years and he has dated other women in the process. She is a living doormat. To escape their love lives, they agree to switch homes for two weeks over Christmas.

Iris finds herself smack dab in the middle of sunny L.A. Her neighbor is an old movie screenwriter who recommends old movies for her to watch. He also loves to talk about the old days as well as spout advice via movie metaphors, "Iris, in the movies, we have leading ladies and we have the best friend. You, I can tell, are a leading lady, but for some reason, you're behaving like the best friend." She meets and takes a liking to a man who writes scores for movies. He also likes to recommend movies for her to watch.

Amanda spends one boring night in Iris's cottage and decides the vacation was a bad idea until Iris's brother shows up at her door. They are immediately attracted to each other. As Amanda puts it,"I just broke up with someone and considering you just showed up and you're insanely good-looking and probably won't remember me anyway... I'm thinking we should have sex..." It soon becomes clear that Amanda has gotten herself into another bad relationship.

The Holiday makes nods to old Hollywood romantic comedies. Iris learns to stand up for herself by watching strong willed women in old films, like Barbra Stanwyck, Irene Dunn and Rosalind Russell. I am not sure if this was Meyers point but what this movies demonstrates that women have become wimps, at least on film. Any movie buff, of films from the 1940's or 50's, can tell you that women stood up to men then and were never doormats. Imagine if this movie were made in 1940 and starred Katharine Hepburn and Bette Davis. They would have never been the helpless victims of a man or their own emotions.

My wife enjoyed this movie, as I guess many woman will. Perhaps they can relate to these characters. I enjoyed it for the comparisons of old and new films, or at least how characters are written differently then and now. At well over 2 hours long it could have definitely been trimmed. Amanda's old boyfriend could have been cut entirely from the film as could the old screenwriter next door. Sure he is there so he and Iris can teach each other how to stand on their own two feet, but at 138 minutes Iris does not need a new boyfriend and a new, old teacher. Their characters should have been combined and saved screen time.

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