Too many movies packed into 'The Holiday'

The Holiday is a tale of two women, two houses, two love interests — Jude Law pairs with Diaz, Jack Black gets lucky with Winslet — but it's also about movie love. There is something touching if willfully naive about Meyers's nostalgia for Hollywood's golden age, when Louis B. Mayer ruled the very lot on which she shot part of this film. If her name had been Ned, not Nancy, she might have thrived then. She wouldn't have been allowed to go amusingly (or maddeningly) off point, but her commercial instincts would have been encouraged, her indulgences — like filling mouths with speeches, not dialogue — squelched. An old-studio producer would have recognized that there are several films jammed into this one and maybe called in Ben Hecht for a polish, even as he recognized that Meyers always has something to give.