The Holiday (2006)

I just saw this film Friday night. It was funny and adorably sweet

Summary

-Amanda (Cameron Diaz) is a film editor who just left a bad relationship. Iris (Kate Winslet) is a newspaper journalist who is heartbroken when the man she loves gets engaged to another woman. To give themselves a break from love during the Christmas holidays, they decide to exchange houses, with love managing to find them none the less

Cast

-Cameron Diaz: Amanda

-Kate Winslet: Iris

-Jude Law: Graham

-Jack Black: Miles

-Eli Wallach: Arthur Abbott

-Edward Burns: Ethan

-Rufus Sewell: Jasper Bloom

-Miffy Englefield: Sophie

-Emma Pritchard: Olivia

-Sarah Parish: Hannah

-Shannyn Sossamon: Maggie

-Bill Macy: Ernie

-Shelley Berman: Norman

-Kathryn Hahn: Bristol

-John Krasinski: Ben

-Alex O'Loughlin: Kissing Couple

-Odette Yustman: Kissing Couple

Did You Know?

-This film was written with the intention of having Jude Law, Kate Winslet, Cameron Diaz and Jack Black star together

-The sound studio that Miles (Jack Black) works in, complete with the keyboard, monitors, sound modules and other technology was copied, bit by bit, from the studio in which composer Hans Zimmer works

-The website that Iris and Amanda use to exchange houses is an actual site. It's called homeexchange.com

-The house that was used for Arthur Abbott's house once belonged to comedic actress Phyllis Diller

-After this movie came out, the popularity of "house exchanging" became so popular that police officers in England had to issue various warnings about swapping homes with strangers due to the increased risk of fraud, murders and other crimes

-When Arthur (Eli Wallach) is talking to Iris, he references a "Meet Cute". This was used in the 1938 film Bluebeard's Eighth Wife. Claudette Colbert and Gary Cooper meet while out shopping. He buys the bottom part and she buys the top part of the same pair of pajamas

-Nancy Myers wrote the role of Miles with Jack Black in mind after seeing him in the 2003 film School of Rock

-The small cottage Iris (Kate Winslet) lives in is contrasted to the large L.A. home Amanda (Cameron Diaz) lives in. In reality, thanks in part to the rising property prices in the UK, a cottage in a quiet country village such as Iris' house would be worth, easily, £1 million, not far off of the $2 million price tag

-Cameron Diaz said, because of the massive amount of running she did, that this was her most physical film

-While on a date with Arthur, he asks Iris why a beautiful girl like her is out to dinner with an "old cocker" like him. This is a Yiddish phrase for "old man"

-The movie Iris is watching in Amanda's house is the 1940 film His Girl Friday

-When Miles comes to Amanda's house and hears what sounds like a party, Iris tells him that Amanda's next door neighbor Arthur and his friends are having a little Hanukkah party. The four men sitting at her table (Jack Black, Eli Wallach, Shelley Berman and Bill Macy) are all of Jewish descent

-While on the British Airways flight to England, Amanda has a stack of books on the table next to her. They are The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini, The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle, Atonement by Ian McEwan, Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln by Doris Kearns Goodwin, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone by J.K. Rowling, Bob Dylan Chronicles by Bob Dylan, The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen, Runaway by Alice Munro, The Wisdom of Forgiveness: Intimate Journeys and Conversations by The Dalai Lama and Chan Victor

-While Iris is looking over the movies Amanda has, she comes across a film from 2001 called Enigma. Ironically, Kate Winslet starred in that film

-In real life, Jude Law, who plays Graham, has a daughter named Iris. In this film, his sister's name is Iris (Kate Winslet)

-Jude Law and Kate Winslet appeared in at least two other films together: 2006's All the King's Men and 2011's Contagion

-The car Cameron Diaz drives while in England is a 2006 Mini Cooper. While in Los Angeles, the car Kate Winslet drives is a Lexus RX 400h. Graham (Jude Law) drives a 2006 Range Rover. Jack Black drives a convertible Audi A4

-While on the flight to England, one of the books Amanda brings is Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone by J.K. Rowling. Ironically, years later, Jude Law would appear in a 2018 film considered a prequel to the Harry Potter series, called Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald. In that film, he plays Albus Dumbledore