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BY MAGGIE SCOTT

“The Holiday” is already one of my favorite yuletide films. It’s got what every great holiday film has: people being changed for the better when they share the best within them. And, of course, it’s also got two gorgeous women, three charming men and two beautiful houses.

Houses that L.A. film marketer Amanda Woods (Cameron Diaz) and London journalist Iris Simpkins (Kate Winslet) swap for two weeks of staying as far away as possible from men and the heartbreak they always bring.

Iris has been living a life of romantic clichés with nothing to show for it after three years of pining for a guy (Rufus Sewell) who’s strung her along up to the night of announcing his engagement to somebody else.

Amanda has been living with the delusion that a man (Ed Burns) will always come back no matter how often you push him away. Faster than most of the rest of us mortals, these more-beautiful-than-the-average women naturally will get another chance at love.

With a stroke of luck and the computer key, Iris and Amanda find each other on line seeking a far-flung location in which to spend a vacation for one.

Iris has put her cottage, Rosehill, in the quaint English countryside up for use over Christmas, and Amanda picks it as the perfect place to escape from everything except the fantasies of her mixed-up life that take the form of outrageous movie trailers.

After a day or so of fish-out-of-water adjustment in Iris’s Thomas Kincaid-like cottage in the snowy outback, Amanda starts to have second thoughts about idyllic isolation. That’s when Iris’s brother pops most unexpectedly and delightfully into her life.

With irresistible charm Graham (Jude Law) changes Amanda’s mind about shortening her stay and goes from a one night stand capper to a guy she could see herself moving to England for. But, he’s got a secret.

Meanwhile, in sunny, warm California, Iris is finding her emotions swirling like the Santa Ana winds. She’s trying to forget Jasper, discovering a growing attraction to a cute composer of film scores (Jack Black) and nurturing a deep fondness for an aging screenwriter (Eli Wallach) she “met cute” when he got confused navigating his walker back home.

How these gifts of friendship, love and new beginnings are given and received make for some of the most delightful moments on movie screens this holiday. Director Nancy Meyers (Something’s Gotta Give) has given us a complete package full of heart and hope; a gift that will keep on giving throughout the year. A Waverly Film Production, Columbia Pictures and Universal Pictures release, rated PG-13 for sexual content and language.
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