The Holiday: Why Bad Christmas Movies Can Be So Good

What is the appeal of bad Christmas movies? What makes cheesy love stories wrapped in green and red so unbelievably enjoyable? Despite their trite storylines and bad acting, why do we come back to them year after year?

With Christmas on the horizon, I suffered through the cheesiest Christmas movie I could find just to answer these questions for you. As we gear up for exam-season, it would do us all good in the Lick-Wilmerding High School community to give ourselves a little break (specifically, a two hour and 18 minute break) to take our minds off the stress of being an LWHS student. I recommend The Holiday, but not for the reasons you think…

Shakespeare once wrote, “journeys end in lovers meeting.” As opening credits roll in The Holiday (2006, directed by Nancy Meyers) — a festive Christmas movie starring Jack Black, Kate Winslet, Jude Law and Cameron Diaz — the very same quote is relayed by a pining woman wishing for love that is forever unrequited.

As the movie proceeds, it is revealed that Iris, played by Kate Winslet, is in love with her boss. Iris works at a newspaper and specializes in covering local weddings. At an office holiday party, she finds out that the next wedding she will be covering is that of her boss and another woman. She is devastated.

A parallel plot line taking place is introduced: Cameron Diaz plays Amanda, a successful businesswoman in an unsuccessful relationship. She finds out that her long-term boyfriend cheated on her with his secretary and kicks him out of their house.

The two women (strangers for now) decide that they both need drastic changes in their lives.

Amanda searches for vacations on her computer and finds a house-swapping website where Iris’s cottage is listed. Amanda messages Iris and they agree to swap houses. The two book tickets across the world (Amanda to Iris’s London cottage and Iris to Amanda’s LA mansion) and they are off to escape the tragedies of their lives. In true cheesy, Christmas movie fashion, the two find love on their adventures, and as the movie unfolds, we watch their love grow.

It seems the only concerns of the two women are men — how to get them and how to escape them. They both decide to fly across the world to escape their guy problems, a rather shallow and misogynistic approach at portraying these two women. Amanda’s lover-to-be is Graham, Iris’s brother, who bombards Iris’s house drunk, expecting to chat with his sister. When he finds an American stranger, both are caught off guard. Predictably, Amanda and Graham kiss — it’s ridiculously awkward. The dialogue between the two characters would not be out of place in a conversation between middle schoolers. Through her suddenly empty line delivery and bland acting, Diaz completely detracts from any minute amount of chemistry that would have been present in the scene.

Audience members are expected to believe that this will become a blossoming love story as the movie then cuts to a montage of the two exploring London, accompanied by their newfound love. Aspiring to the classic Christmas rom-com charm of childlike joy, the scene is filled with music that swells over the two lovers frolicking throughout the city. However, the love between them lacks authenticity. The love only becomes believable after Amanda discovers that Graham has kids when she knocks on his door in the hopes of seeing Graham and is met with his two adorable daughters.

Surprisingly, the two girls’ (Miffy Englefield and Emma Pritchard) acting abilities shine in comparison to Diaz in this movie. Graham’s character depth allows Amanda and his love story to become believable and even emotional. As I watched this scene and began to feel that this movie was worth watching for the first time, I questioned: what is it that makes cheesy movies watchable? Is it the comfort we find in predictable storylines? Is it the love stories that we have seen a million times before but are ready to see again? No matter what it is, there is something so awful about these movies that they become amazing.

The parallel storyline of Iris, now living in LA, is much easier to watch with superior acting by Jack Black playing love-interest Miles, and Kate Winslet playing the aforementioned British Iris. She meets Amanda’s colleague, who had stopped by the house to see Amanda and is surprised to see Iris, but not at all disappointed. Later, Miles comes back to the house while Iris is having a Hanukkah party and we get to see another montage where the two lovers-to-be steal glances at each other as the music crescendos and the menorah drips wax. Miles and Iris are both drunk as the evening comes to a close, and as Iris walks Miles to the door, he kisses both of her cheeks and the two laugh. He then steps out into the windstorm outside, and Iris calls out “don’t blow away” as she grins to herself, beginning to realize she is falling for him.

Black brings humor to the movie. The love story between his character and Iris is infinitely more believable than that of Amanda and Graham. The movie is incredibly unbalanced. One love story has humor, charm and plot. The other is completely the opposite — speckled with little emotional interjections to manipulate the audience into feeling something for the characters. For example, Amanda’s “tragic little story” of her parents divorcing when she was young as an explanation for her difficulty trusting the love she feels for Graham. I find that her character is reaching for emotional depth that Diaz has an inability to portray, and the screenwriting is (if possible) worse than Diaz’s acting. On top of this, the women’s only problems and only solutions in the movie are men. They are reduced to their relationship status (or lack thereof) and this fuels the plot of the entire movie. But here’s the magic of these Christmas movies. Even though I felt completely uninterested and angry even for much of the movie, I found myself sticking with it, and even towards the end, I almost started to cry. Why? Why do we feel so deeply connected to and invested in a story like The Holiday, a quintessential Christmas movie? Because we seek the childhood comfort that comes with predictable storylines, happy endings and Christmas music in the background. Once I let myself get swept up by these warm feelings, I realized that the movie poses some interesting questions itself, like: do we find what we need in unexpected places? Does letting go of our expectations make space for exactly what we’ve been waiting for?

Maybe I’m just a sucker for happy endings…but then again, aren’t we all — especially when December rolls around and the snow (or fog) comes in, kids start drafting their letters to Santa and Christmas carols flood the radio stations? All this to say, the true Christmas miracle is that the corniest, cheesiest, least believable Christmas movie is really the perfect one. And ‘tis the season to indulge.