? In the US, the
title conjures up images of Christmas trees and presents, whereas in the UK it
more often indicates a vacation. Both meanings, and both places, come to the
fore in this Nancy Meyers romantic comedy, in which an L.A. film trailer editor
(Cameron Diaz) and a Surrey-based journalist (Kate Winslet) swap homes and try
to forget about the men who’ve wronged them. Jude Law and Jack Black play the
potential replacement models.
+ Meyers’s plots can
seem too neat, but her women characters especially articulate familiar
feelings. In the case of the journalist, it’s the feeling of being hopelessly
besotted by one who regards you more as a friend with, or without, benefits. In
the case of the editor, it’s worrying that your partner’s betrayal is really
your fault, or maybe just that you won’t find anyone decent. All of the
performers are engaging. Winslet just snagged a Golden Globe nomination for Little
Children, but if I had to pick, I’d give it to her for this. Her
expressiveness really makes a fluffy scene, like the montage where her
character gets a look at her fabulous temporary quarters, work. Law’s character
was so darn charming that it barely seemed sleazy when Diaz beds him minutes
after they meet. It was also nice to see 90-year-old Eli Wallach in the role of
a retired Hollywood screenwriting legend befriended by his temporary neighbor.
- The things that
bothered me about this movie were little things, like the way the women swap
homes on just a day’s notice, or the way Wallach’s character supposedly can’t
find his own house but otherwise seems sharp. Mostly nothing in this movie
couldn’t happen, but such small things heightened my sense that the
accumulation of all that happens is, put charitably, wildly implausible.
= ***1/4 Meyers may
well have used the title of her earlier What Women Want to describe her
specialty, the wish-fulfillment romantic comedy for the professional woman. In WWW,
the fantasy was that the chauvinist merely longed to meet a woman who was truly
his equal; in Something’s Gotta Give, it was that the aging playboy
actually longed for true companionship with a woman nearer his own age. And
here, it’s the idea that a quick trip across the Atlantic will lead to
long-term romance. But I bought the fantasy here. While keeping the pacing
quick and the comedy sprinkled throughout, Meyers invests the movie with
genuine emotion that made me gloss over the misgivings that, in truth, stayed
pretty far back in my mind.
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