We went to see The Holiday yesterday, and I was really disappointed. Geez, I hate saying that. I remember when we first saw the trailer a few months back…it looked like a fantastically fluffy, holiday romantic comedy…with Jack Black! How awesome would it be, I thought, to see Jack Black venture out into the romantic lead category with the super-fab Kate Winslet?

Having seen the movie, I’m sure it would have been great, had they given the guy more screen time and allowed him to do something other than be the same Jack Black we see in every movie. He’s starting to turn into Jim Carrey…you give a guy The Truman Show, then he gives you Bruce Almighty.

The premise is this - Kate Winslet and Cameron Diaz, disillusioned with their lovelives and general state of things, swap houses for a couple of weeks around Christmas to recharge, re-energize and get away from the Mean Men In Their Lives. Before you even buy your popcorn you know they’re paired with Jack Black and Jude Law, so really…how can this possibly go wrong?

The one thing I do know about myself is I lean towards being a hopeless romantic (I cried at the end of The Lake House, for pete’s sake), so I was up for peppermint-crusted romance and fun. The unfortunate part about the movie was it over-emphasized the Cameron Diaz/Jude Law (Amanda/Graham) pairing and under-emphasized the Kate Winslet/Jack Black (Iris/Miles) coupling.

I can’t even call what Iris & Miles had a coupling…there weren’t really hints at any sort of significant interest until the end of the movie, but by that point I thought Iris would be better off with aging screenwriter Arthur Abbott.

Actually, when I saw what a weenie Miles was and how he allowed himself to totally be steamrolled by his actress “bad girl” girlfriend, I thought Iris would be better with Arthur or one of Arthur’s “Old Hollywood” cronies. Who knows…maybe test audiences just couldn’t hack watching Jack Black kiss anyone.

There’s also this subplot involving assumed-cad-about-town Graham not really being a cad-about-town but rather a lonely dad whose wife died two years ago. And of course, his girls absolutely adore Amanda, encouraging her to watch Dad make a fool of himself as Captain Napkin (or whatever it was), inviting her to their tented princess lair, and calling their family “The Three Musketeers” just like Amanda’s family did when she was young…all at the first meeting! Cue: awwwwwww!

And just like that…in a mere wisp of a moment, all of Amanda’s unresolved childhood issues and fears of commitment and inability to cry melt away like the snow in England seemed to do about ten times during her two weeks there. I may be a romantic, but I’m a pragmatic romantic.

Nancy Meyers, I loved Something’s Gotta Give, and I loved What Women Want. I really wanted to love this movie, too.  There were some really cute moments (Amanda’s problems playing out in movie-trailer fashion come to mind), but I can’t recommend it.