December 19, 2006
The trailer for this movie is so tempting, as a high-class chick flick, that I'm sure loads of people will be putting it on their Christmas treat list. I'm afraid this is one of those movies where they put all the best bits of the film in the trailer. It never gets funnier or prettier or sexier or more heart-warming than that - well, perhaps that is a little harsh. There's nothing in the trailer about Iris's (Kate Winslet) friendship with ancient screen-writer Eli Wallach (strange to think of him as a menacing bad guy in westerns as the lissom Kate now towers over him) or her tormented relationship with the vile Jasper (Rupert Sewell), the ex that won't let go - and these elements are far and away the best parts of the movie. The house-swap mirror-image plot was in fact quite uneven in terms of delivering reward to the audience (this member of it anyway); I do feel that I have now seen quite enough of Cameron Diaz's ear to ear grin, bizarrely firm apple-like cheeks and dazzling turquoise eyes. She is starting to look like a cartoon, and in acting terms has not progressed since Charlie's Angels. And Jude Law as her surprise Christmas romance Graham (yes, Graham) was disappointingly wooden; uncomfortable perhaps in this very slight rom-com outing, or possibly unable to relate to his own quite incredible character, a very handsome man who is a widower with two adorable little moppets. Iris's story was both more entertaining and more moving, as she struggled to escape the slippery embrace of Jasper and move on with her life. The scene in which she finally pins him down and exposes him for the rat he is, and the scales fall from her eyes, was excellent and made you want to cheer. If only we could all move on by going to stay in the palatial sunset boulevard mansion of someone we just met on the internet this morning. The mansion and Iris's own pretty Cotswold cottage were pleasingly re-created; life as we wish it could be lived. Jack Black was not given enough to do as Iris's romantic interest, which is a pity, as what we saw of him was pretty good. A tinselly Christmas treat, then, good in parts, but could have been so much better.