The Case of The Holiday (2006)
This year, we decided to start off December with an episode all about one of our favorite Rom-coms. This mid-2000s gem is a Christmas movie that we don’t mind watching any time of year! It’s a wonderfully cheerful film about finding love in an unexpected place. We’re talking about the 2006 Nancy Meyers film, The Holiday!
This film is the Christmas rom-com that most Hallmark movies wish they were. It plays on romantic tropes in a delightful way, with enough audience-pleasing predictability to make it a relaxing film to watch. Although it focuses on two couples meeting and falling in love, the movie takes its time letting the stories play out. This film isn’t just about people “getting together,” it’s a story about moving on from unhealthy relationships and finding out who you are.
So, let’s head to LA…or Surrey…and fall in love with The Holiday.
Summary
The story begins with two women, Amanda and Iris. Amanda is a wealthy movie trailer editor in LA, while Iris is in book publishing in Surrey. Amanda lives in a massive home with an olympic swimming pool and a movie collection that would make any film nerd swoon, while Iris owns a beautiful cozy cottage just big enough for one. These two different people both happen to have one thing in common: their love lives are seemingly falling apart. Desperate to get away for the holiday season, Amanda finds Iris’ cottage listed on a “home exchange” website. Without another thought, the two agree to swap homes for two weeks.
Amanda hopes to avoid meeting any men on her trip, but is surprised to encounter Iris’ brother Graham. Iris heads to LA to avoid messages from her toxic ex-boyfriend, and meets Miles, a charismatic film composer. Although love was the last thing either woman was looking for, they end up finding it over the course of the holiday.
Making of
The holiday was written and directed by Nancy Meyers, the screenwriter behind classics like Father of the Bride and The Parent Trap (which she also directed.)
Meyers put a lot of her own life experience into the characters. While she was writing the screenplay, she was inspired by real-life encounters that inspired her to change the story. For example, she herself ended up on a home-exchange website while trying to find a place to stay while on vacation. The concept intrigued her so much, she worked it into the story.
Meyers’ life and career is completely entwined in Hollywood, much like the character Amanda. She lives in a neighborhood filled with film history. Her neighbor’s house was even owned by the men that wrote Casablanca.
Meyers has explained that because she’s a screenwriter, she often thinks in movie scenes. That’s why Amanda, who cuts trailers, sometimes thinks in trailers. This happens a couple times in the film, where we see clips of Amanda’s life played with a voice over from the legendary Hal Douglas. For many years, Douglas was known as THE trailer voice and provided narration for countless trailers over his career.
The character Arthur, the cantankerous old man that befriends Iris, was also loosely based on a real person in Meyers’ life. There was an old man in her neighborhood who would go on walks with his nurse. She never spoke to him, but she would always wave and he never waved back. Meyers was intrigued by him, and began to imagine who he was. One day, Meyers spotted the man walking without assistance in a tracksuit. She waved at him and he smiled and waved back! He got back into shape much like Arthur, who even wears a tracksuit in one scene of The Holiday.
Arthur also expresses some of the feelings that Meyers has as a screenwriter. She wanted to highlight the fact that writers from classic Hollywood often get overlooked or forgotten. So, she created a plot where he avoids accepting a lifetime achievement award because he doesn’t think anyone will show up.
Meyers found it challenging to follow the stories of two characters simultaneously, because both had to be introduced properly. This is why the film opens with a montage of the four principle characters with Kate Winslet’s narration, which gives the audience a glimpse of their stories while tying them together.
She was unsure of the scene where Miles (Jack Black) and Iris (Kate Winslet) meet for the first time. Originally, they were just going to talk, and she was worried that it was too boring. Her daughter suggested that something should fly into Iris’ eye, and that Miles would help her get it out. This made the characters be physically close to each other, and it works as a “meet cute.”
Nancy Meyers included a lot of nods to classic cinema, including the famous romance montages that appeared in a lot of romantic films of the 60s. That’s why she chose to film Jude Law and Cameron Diaz as they ran around embracing after their lunch together.
The Holiday takes place in Los Angeles and Surrey, so production designer John Hutman and his crew had their work cut out for them. They had to create two distinctly different locations and make sure to remind the audience that the characters were in different countries.
The scenes in LA needed to be lush and green, and the scenes in the English countryside needed to look cold and snowy. Nancy Meyers got some notes from the members of the cast and crew that lived in England, as they told her that it didn’t really snow there. As luck would have it, they did encounter actual snow while filming, though a lot of it isn’t real.
Meyers shot the two couples very differently. Amanda and Graham have a lot of tight, intimate shots, where nothing is shown but their faces. Iris and Miles appear in wider shots, partly to convey the fact that they are in sunny LA. This also mirrors how Amanda and Graham’s relationship is intimate immediately, while Iris and Miles start as friends and grow closer throughout the film.
They started filming in LA with Kate Winslet for about a month before the production moved to the UK to film with Cameron Diaz for a few weeks.
Benjamin Greenacre was the location manager for filming in the UK, and found the spot where the production team would build Iris’ cottage. They spent four weeks landscaping the front of it, which included building the wall just outside the home. Iris’ house was modeled after Honeysuckle Cottage, a real home in the village of Holmbury St. Mary.
Filming was also done in Shere, a village in Surrey, with only one shot filmed in London. There is one scene where Amanda and Graham are eating lunch, and the exterior of that restaurant was shot in The Cotswolds. This is funny because Amanda considers vacationing there briefly at the beginning of the movie.
The interior of Rosehill Cottage (where Iris lives) says a lot about who she is. There is food shown throughout, with objects packed together in a small space. The interior design has more of a classic look, so that it appears “English,” but not like the home of a grandmother. The production crew loved the comforting feel of her home, even preferring it to Amanda’s spacious LA house.
The set of Graham’s house is one of the most detailed in the film. The movie does everything it can to convince the audience that Graham is a single man leading up to the moment when it’s revealed that he has two children and his wife has passed away. So, it was vital that his house look like a family home. There are homemade ornaments on the tree, school schedules hanging up in the background, and toys strewn everywhere.
In Graham’s daughters’ room, there’s a wonderful hand-made tent. It was production designer John Hutman’s favorite set in the film.
The exterior of the California home where Iris stays throughout the movie was built by architect Wallace Neff as his private residence in the late 1920s.
The interior was built on sound stages, featuring modern interior design. The house needed to look as updated as possible, so audiences would believe a young woman in her 30s would live there.
Some sets didn’t make an appearance in the final cut of the movie. For example, the crew built a beautiful bathroom and large walk-in closet for Iris to discover when she arrived in California.
The exterior of Arthur Abbott’s home was actually the home of comedian and actress Phyllis Diller. Diller was still alive while they were shooting, and the crew was happy to meet her.
The interior of Arthur’s house was carefully modeled after the homes of writers from the golden age of Hollywood. Nancy Meyers and John Hutman watched interviews with writers and took screenshots as a reference. There were also visual nods to Billy Wilder, a screenwriter and director that inspired Arthur’s character.
One of the things that makes The Holiday stand out is its incredible cast.
Kate Winslett plays the lovelorn Iris Simpkins, a woman in a toxic relationship with her ex, Jasper Bloom, who is played brilliantly by Rufus Sewell.
Although Jasper is only in a few scenes, his presence dominates Iris, as he uses her infatuation with him to his advantage. In his first scene, we can see that Iris loves Jasper, but that Jasper only loves what he can get from Iris, with no regard to her feelings.
The first scene between Iris and Jasper was one of the most important moments for Nancy Meyers, and she wanted to make sure they got it right. The audience needed to understand right away that Jasper was bad news. After Jasper flirts with Iris, his engagement to another woman is announced at the company holiday party. Meyers was impressed with Kate Winslet’s acting in this scene, as the camera gently pushed in on her horrified face.
Kate Winslet added a lot to her character. For example, when Iris first arrives at Amanda’s house, she was supposed to react to the massive bathroom and closet that the production designers built. She was also supposed to look in a large mirror and say a line about how this was the best thing to ever happen to her. But when Winslet saw the bed in Amanda’s room, she told Meyers that she wanted to run and flop dramatically on the bed. Meyers thought it was a great idea. So, Winslet jumps on the bed, and that’s how the scene ends.
One of the most challenging scenes for the actors was the three-way phone call between Winslet, Cameron Diaz, and Jude Law. Winslet had five pages of dialogue, and had to switch between talking to Cameron and Law. Even though Diaz and Winslet both filmed this scene months apart, it cut together seamlessly. It’s one of the funniest moments in the movie.
Cameron Diaz plays Amanda Woods, a business woman who just broke up with a long-term boyfriend.
Diaz said that this was one of her most physical roles. Near the end of the film, she has to run a fairly long distance. She also shows some great physicality in the beginning of the movie, when she punches her ex in the face.
Nancy Meyers loved working with Cameron Diaz because she’s a pure comedian. When her character first arrives in Surrey, she doesn’t have anything to do. Meyers just ran the camera on Diaz for 10 minutes, telling her to “act bored.” This is how she caught Diaz doing silly little things that she came up with all on her own.
Amanda is a fabulous Hollywood leading lady, and her clothes reflect that. In her first scene, she’s wearing white clothes that resemble the satin pajamas worn by many female leads in 1930s films.
Diaz’ character Amanda assumes the role usually filled by the male lead in a romantic film. She doesn’t want to commit to any relationships and is known to be unemotional. Jude Law’s Graham is the opposite, and the two of them flip the script on classic rom-coms.
Jack Black plays Miles Dumont, a film composer who is smitten with his girlfriend Maggie, played by Shannyn Sossamon.
After seeing Jack Black in School of Rock, Nancy Meyers noticed that he showed a lot of tenderness on screen with the children, so she wanted him for The Holiday.
Black really stole the show. He made everyone laugh on set, and he was the only actor that Meyers encouraged to improvise lines. Meyers said he was incredibly respectful of the character and the lines, and sometimes he chose not to try different things even when given the opportunity.
One of Black’s biggest scenes takes place in a Blockbuster, as he picks up several movies and talks about the scores. To prepare for this, Nancy Meyers asked some composer friends about their favorite scores. Jack Black then came over to her place and learned the themes so he could sing them in the store.
Dustin Hoffman happened to be eating at a restaurant next door when he saw that someone was shooting a movie in Blockbuster. So he came to investigate. Since one of the scores that Miles mentions is The Graduate, Meyers asked Hoffman to play a cameo (for those of you who might not know, Dustin Hoffman starred in The Graduate.) When Miles picks up the DVD and sings “Mrs. Robinson,” Dustin Hoffman shakes his head and says, “I can’t go anywhere.” Hoffman didn’t even change his clothes before appearing in the scene and he made up that line on the spot.
Jude Law plays Graham Simpkins, Iris’ brother and Amanda’s love interest.
While acting in The Holiday, Jude Law had three small children of his own. He loved that his character was a father, and Nancy Meyers said that he was a natural with the kids.
Many of Graham’s mannerisms were added by Jude Law, and Nancy Meyers loved how thoroughly “British” he acted. Law also picked out the glasses that Graham wears in the movie, and helped make other decisions about the character.
In one scene, Law’s character Graham plays “Mr. Napkin Head” for his daughters. He places a napkin on his face with glasses and makes a silly voice. This is actually something that Nancy Meyers’ ex-husband would do for their children in restaurants, making children at other tables laugh.
Eli Wallach had just turned 90 when he did the screen test for Arthur Abbott, the screenwriter from Hollywood’s golden age.
Wallach was actually much more lively than his character, and Meyers had to remind him that he was playing someone who had a difficult time moving around. He had a lot of great insight for his character, and he would tell stories about Marilyn Monroe and Clark Gable, just like Arthur does in the movie.
Wallach was a renowned character actor who was in the film business for over 60 years before his passing at the age of 98.
Music
Oscar-winning composer Hans Zimmer wrote the score for The Holiday. He’s one of the most prominent film composers today, having scored films like The Lion King and Pirates of the Caribbean.
In the movie, the character Miles is also a composer, and he writes themes for Iris and Arthur. This posed an interesting challenge for Zimmer, who composed his own themes for the characters and then had to write two more themes later.
Zimmer’s first theme for Iris is somewhat unrealized, and the theme that Miles writes for Iris is a polished version of the same music. It’s as if Miles doesn’t change the theme, he just finds the notes that will make it complete.
Suzanne Zimmer, Hans Zimmer’s then-wife, actually sings on the soundtrack. You can hear her voice in the scene where Graham and Amanda meet and decide to have sex.
Because Jack Black’s character is a composer, the film was able to work in some nods and references to classic film scores. In one scene, Black holds up a copy of Driving Miss Daisy, calling out Hans Zimmer, who scored that film as well.
Reception
With a budget of 85 million, The Holiday pulled in a worldwide gross of $205,850,169.
The movie holds a low score of 50% on Rotten Tomatoes, with many critics panning the film for its predictability. One critic said that there was nothing authentic or personal about the movie. The audience score is much higher with 80%. Some reviewers call it their favorite Christmas movie, while some point out the unbelievability of the story. One reviewer questions the morality of the scene where Graham and Amanda have sex after it’s established that Graham is drunk and Amanda is not.
Based on the reviews from the film’s debut in 2006, The Holiday was not well-received. Most of the positive reviews are more recent, when critics have the privilege of seeing the film with modern eyes.
However, if you were to google a list of the best holiday rom-coms, The Holiday always ranks high on the list. Fans love that the film isn’t just about finding love, it’s also about restoring your soul and healing from recent relationship wounds.
Fun Facts
There are movie references hidden all throughout the film. Some of them are more obvious, like when Kate Winslett talks about Casablanca. But, some are more subtle. The scene where Amanda and Graham meet and kiss was inspired by a scene from Some Like it Hot, a film directed by Billy Wilder, who (like we mentioned) was a big inspiration for Arthur’s character. The scene where Iris hits her lowest point and briefly begins inhaling natural gas was inspired by the film Sabrina, when Audrey Hepburn considers suffocating herself in a garage filled with running cars.
In the film, Amanda says that she’s always buying books and never reading them. Later on, she’s shown with a stack of books to read. These books happened to also be the books on director Nancy Meyers’ “to be read” list as well.
There’s a rule that you can’t show a real Oscar in a film. There is a scene where the camera sweeps over Arthur’s home, and there’s an Oscar sitting in the window. Nancy Meyers thought that the rule was silly, so she used a real Academy Award anyway. Just before the film was complete, the studio reached out and asked her if the award was real. Meyers then had to switch the shot out for one with a replica.
Conclusion
The Holiday is the kind of romantic comedy that has a little bit of something for everyone. It’s cheesy enough to pull in the hopeless romantics looking for a heartfelt holiday movie, but with enough nostalgia for classic Hollywood to make the average movie buff smile. Not to mention a beautiful score by Hans Zimmer that should never be overlooked.
Although it didn’t please critics upon its release, audiences were drawn in by the strong performances of its lead cast, especially the inclusion of lovable character actors like Eli Wallach and the always enjoyable Jack Black. Now, it’s one of the most talked about holiday rom-coms of all time, with many considering it to be their favorite Christmas movie. So, if you’re feeling extra cynical this season, pop in this delightful film and allow your brain to take a holiday.
Sources:
DVD special features