The Holidays

After watching the first half the holidays, I was already disappointed. My bf asked, "What did you expect from this movie?" I was expecting another "Kissing Jessica Stein", journeys of two completely different girls rediscovering love, life and themselves by breaking out of the normal routines, by doing something completely different.

The holidays wasn't as thought provoking as "Kissing Jessica Stein". It was not even as heart warming as "Love Actually".
The holiday started off with a very attractive concept, swapping homes with someone from a different city. One was from LA, the other London, and first time in the new cities for both. How exciting as I had longed for such an experience, escaping to a different city, a new home, new people, living a different life, experiencing a different culture, a life do-over.

But the holidays quickly shrank this concept to just a new romance, a new leading man. The only difference between LA and London as far as I could tell was the accents. The London experience never went beyond the girl's cottage and Jude Law's bedroom.
The LA experience was limited to only the LA movie industry. Three people in her LA life were a movie script writer; a movie music composer, and an actress. How dare they reduce LA to just the Hollywood?

But I loved Jude Law's role in this movie as a caring father. I loved when Jude Law showed his insecurities as he talked about how hard it was to be a father and a single man. I was a little surprised when he said he sometimes pretended the kids didn't exist. Surprised because I had already settled down into this otherwise completely sugar coated movie.