The setting of this film is in London England. Iris Simpkins writes a wedding column in a newspaper and nurtures an unrequited love for her colleague Jasper Bloom. Near Christmas, she is informed that Jasper is engaged to marry another colleague. This surprising event causes her life to turn upside down. In Los Angeles, Amanda Woods makes movie-trailers. She has just split with her unfaithful boyfriend Ethan and she wants to forget him forever!! Through a house exchange website, Amanda impulsively swaps her mansion for Iris' cottage in Surrey during the holiday period. While in Surrey, Amanda meets Iris' brother and book editor Graham and they fall in love almost instantly!! Meanwhile, Iris meets her new next door neighbor the ninety year old screenplay writer Arthur, who helps her retrieve some of her self-esteem. Iris also meets the film composer Miles and she falls in love with him.
This romcom will probably appeal to teens but they could get mixed messages from some of the characters' behaviors. Several scenes focus on drinking and drunkenness, two of them lead to unplanned sexual encounters. This unsafe behavior is presented as cute comedy?? Plus, a single father suggests that he sometimes gets drunk to "compartmentalize" his life? He is dealing with his sadness over his losing his wife and the pressures of being a full time dad. Characters frequently get very emotional. A woman punches her cheating boyfriend so hard that he falls to the ground. A couple of bad words and other minor language is included. Of course, some of the actors don’t realize this (?) but in reality, they don’t have very much in common emotionally in their jobs?? 4* (I liked this movie)
136 min, Comedy directed and written by Nancy Meyers with Kate Winslet, Cameron Diaz, Jude Law, Jack Black Eli Wallach, Edward Burns, Rufus Sewell, Miffy Englefield, Emma Pritchard, Sarah Parish, Shannyn Sossamon, Bill Macy, Shelley Berman, Kathryn Hahn, John Krasinski.
Note: Imdb 6.9* out of 120* with 240,392 reviews, Common Sense Media Cynthia Fuchs, age 13+, 3* out of 4*, 3* sex, language, consumerism and drinking, drugs, smoking, Metacritic 52 out of 100 with 31 critic reviews 8.6 out of 10 with 227 reviews, Letterboxd 3.3* out of 5* with 342 fans.
Special Note: Written specifically with Cameron Diaz, Kate Winslet, Jude Law and Jack Black in mind!! Kate Winslet and Rufus Sewell have previously been in a real-life romance. The website Amanda and Iris use to exchange houses is the real website, homeexchange.com. The house used for Arthur Abbot’s (Eli Wallach’s) residence belonged to actress Phyllis Diller at the time of shooting and it is located in the Brentwood section of Los Angeles California. Iris' (Kate Winslet’s) tiny cottage is contrasted to Amanda's (Cameron Diaz's) stunning house but in reality, thanks to UK property prices, an unspoiled cottage like this in a good location could easily be worth £1 million, not far off $2 million.
Mistakes: When Amanda is searching for her holiday place, on the net appears a window with the countries' flags. The old South African flag is used instead of the current flag, Peru's flag is used as Poland's and Union Jack is used as England's flag? In the beginning of the movie when Miles is producing a song for a movie, he hits all the wrong keys even though the computer screen shows the correct notes? When Amanda pours herself a glass of white wine, the pouring sound effect begins well before any wine starts entering the bottle?
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