Isn't despair cute?
London journalist Iris (Kate Winslet) starts sniffing gas after being strung along for the umpteenth time by her boss, Jasper (Rufus Sewell). Meanwhile, Los Angeles movie editor Amanda (Cameron Diaz) throws her cheating boyfriend out on his ear. Their respective Christmases are going to be miserable, so Iris and Amanda trade places through a house-swap Web site — each gets to use the other's home, car, everything, for a week — to get away from it all. Iris has a sexy brother (Jude Law) who stops by the cottage when Amanda's around, and Amanda knows a film composer (Jack Black) who needs to pick something up while Iris is minding the estate. Eli Wallach's in there, too, but nobody's hooking up with him. Now that we're all clear, here are the film's only two good parts: an unintentionally hilarious trailer that Amanda's editing, starring the real Lindsay Lohan and James Franco in what looks like a terrible, terrible movie; and, later, Jude Law impersonating "Mr. Napkinhead." That covers about three minutes of this Nancy Meyers-directed charade, so you've got to find something else to do for the remaining two and a quarter hours. Crochet is an excellent hobby for times when you don't have great visibility. Plus, it doesn't have the rhythmic clacking associated with knitting, so you can be considerate of those around you who've opted for sleep.
Violet Glaze writes about film for Metro Times. Send comments to [email protected].
