Christmas Movie Experiment: The Holiday

The concept: Watch as many Christmas-themed or Christmas-related movies this December as I can without going nuts.

The candidate: The Holiday.

The premise: Unlucky-in-love Kate Winslet and Cameron Diaz (I'm sorry I have absolutely no idea what their characters are called) decide to swap houses for two weeks over Christmas. One lives in LA, one in London. I know this will shock you but romance ensues.

The verdict: Cameron Diaz has long been, for me, a movie ruiner. I hate her. I HATE her. I hate HER. So trying to get engaged in her storyline is, straight up, a big ask. What this baby has in its favour is the presence of the always charming, endlessly talented Kate Winslet and, more importantly, Rufus Fucking Sewell, also known as the dreamiest dreamboat that ever dreamed. God he is sex on legs, stealing every scene he's in even though he's supposed to be (and ok kinda is) a dick. The downside to that is that, on a looks basis alone, it's extremely hard not to root for Kate Winslet to go back to him even though (I'm ruining nothing, seriously, this is obvious from the first minute of the film) that is never going to happen. The end result is a sporadically cute, mostly quite stupid but, eh, it passes the time offering to the romantic comedy genre. So it's, you know, fine. (Although, seriously, Cameron Face-like-a-Mashed-Pea Diaz gets Jude Law as her love interest and Kate Winslet gets Jack Black? Not cool, movie, not cool).