There's beauty in breakdown

A romantic comedy is inherently about change. Whether a character herself changes, or whether she changes the world around her. Some of the best romantic comedies are the ones where the romance is a bonus prize, a reward for the character doing the work to find self-actualization. Nancy Meyers is pretty amazing at this, partially because her films employ a five-act structure and take their characters on long overarching paths. Her 2006 film The Holiday is in my opinion a prototypical example of this, because Meyers' characters go through such clearly defined arcs in which they are directed confronted a new reality--both literally and metaphorically. 

Let's start with Cameron Diaz as Amanda. Amanda's reality is that she can't fall in love, or perhaps she can't "do" love correctly. There's something broken in her from when her parents unexpectedly split up about 15 years or so ago. Her problem is that she can't cry, she might've drove her boyfriend away, and she just might be incapable of reckoning with and accepting her feelings.  Amanda travels to England, and this is what sets up her breakdown. Suddenly she's in a new set of circumstances and perhaps subconsciously she sees new possibilities. She allows herself to explore, and pushes past her own survival mechanisms. 

The name Amanda means "worthy of love," and Amanda discovers that she is in fact worthy of love. In her previous context, she wasn't. She was broken, and better off alone. But Amanda discovers...what if she weren't broken? Sounds simple, but sometimes that's all it takes. She makes the decision not to run back home and meet Graham at the pub. She makes the decision to surprise him at his house, and not run away from a possibility because she's afraid. We don't know the outcome of her relationship with Graham. They acknowledge they're in an uphill battle with a lot of difficult decisions to make. But they're letting go and jumping in, instead of letting their fear get the best of them.

Kate Winslet plays Iris, a sad sack woman in a one-sided relationship with a manipulative and subtly cruel guy. Her reality is that she's pathetic and lonely, and somewhat bland. Maybe she doesn't say it outright but I feel like Iris interprets her context as someone who's too boring for a "life." So she writes about other people getting married, watches her ex/"friend" announce his engagement, and then goes home to her small cottage far away from the glamor of London. 

When Iris travels to LA, and stays in Amanda's sprawling mansion, she gets out of her own reality and sees a new possibility for herself. What if she weren't boring or pathetic? She can blossom in her new possibility, out of previous circumstances. She makes friends who want to be around her, meets a man who genuinely enjoys her company, and sees herself as a leading lady in her own life not just the depressed best friend or ex-girlfriend. Iris didn't But she did the work of making a change, she saw a possibility for herself and achieved it. 

The Holiday is a literal example of how changing your circumstances, your reality, can lead to new possibilities. For both Amanda and Iris, they saw themselves in a new light by embracing their breakdowns and making a change. Then they saw new opportunities present themselves, and transformed their lives.