In the annals of generic people-standing-around-talking movies, "The Holiday" achieves a new low. A cinematic widget product from expert extruder Nancy Meyers ("What Women Want," "Something's Gotta Give"), this overproduced romantic comedy doesn't even qualify as fluff; it's flat, featureless plastic.

Cameron Diaz and Kate Winslet play two successful professionals who are romantic failures; one lives near London, the other in Los Angeles, and they agree to switch houses over the holidays. The idea, presumably, was Bridget Jones times two, but the result is an interminable, unromantic, uncomic series of setups and payoffs that hold zero surprises (except the number of fabulous winter coats Diaz's character is able to fit into a suitcase. Now that's talent!).

Jude Law looks mildly interested and improbably bronzed as Diaz's love interest; Jack Black tones down his usual manic act but looks wildly out of place as Winslet's friend-turned-suitor. A subplot involving a screenwriter played by Eli Wallach finds Meyers congratulating herself and the rest of the entertainment industrial complex for dutifully stamping out just this kind of product. As it rounds hour two, what women -- and men -- will want is for "The Holiday" to stop.

-- Ann Hornaday (Dec. 8, 2006)

Contains sexual content and profanity.