Gef’s Festive Film Advent Calendar: 13 Dec

13 December

The Holiday

*Available to watch on Netflix

Ah, The Holiday. Arguably one of the most popular modern Christmas films. Nowadays it’s not only Mariah and her aneurism-inducing melody that people start talking about before Halloween is barely out the door, it’s also this movie. It’s the perfect rom-com that shows us true love is super easy to find if you’re rich and really good looking. Or Jack Black.

The film follows the stories of two heartbroken women at Christmas who swap houses for the holiday. One of whom, (Iris, played by Kate Winslet, attempts to gas herself over her perfectly quaint stove because the horrible narcissist she loves doesn’t love her back. Thank goodness she doesn’t go through with it otherwise she wouldn’t have met Jack Black, who she makes eyes at even though he has a girlfriend. But his girlfriend is cheating anyway so it’s fine. Then there’s the other storyline of Cameron Diaz who, after breaking up with her cheating boyfriend, meets Jude Law (Iris’s brother). They sleep together loads and Jude chooses not to tell her that he has two young daughters. That he seemingly spends no time with because he always either out at the pub or shagging Cameron in his sister’s bed.

Then they all end up living happily ever after. It’s sickeningly romantic and disgustingly unrealistic. I love it. Although, I think I mainly just love Iris’s cottage in the Cotswolds. With the snow and the wooden-beam-roofed pub nearby, it is Christmas perfection.