THE first thing to be said about Nancy Myer's romantic comedy is that it is very long. More than two hours long. The second thing to say is that it's neither romantic nor funny. It is just tedious.

Winslet and Diaz play unlucky-in-love women who swap homes for the Christmas period. Winslet's wedding column writer Iris goes to live in the Californian home of Amanda Woods (Diaz), who runs a company that makes movie trailers.

Amanda heads across the Atlantic to move into Iris' picturesque country cottage in Surrey. That Iris, a lowly wedding column writer on The Daily Telegraph who can't even meet her deadlines, could afford such a country property is just one of many gaping holes in a plot that holds water as well as a string vest.

You don't need to be Einstein to know that switching homes will bring new men into the lives of these lovelorn women. In Iris' case, it's film composer Miles (Black). For Amanda, the man is Iris' brother Graham (Law).

Both men come with baggage - Miles has a girlfriend, Graham has two children. Iris also chums up with her elderly neighbour Arthur (Wallach), who's a former Hollywood screenwriter, seemingly so Meyer can make barbed comments about the state of the movie industry's obsession with box office at the expense of creativity.

This might make more impact if The Holiday wasn't such a load of old manure itself. Any romantic comedy that passes the two hour mark needs to be pretty special and not hackneyed with its quaint, picture postcard scenes of snow-covered England and Iris behaving like a naive schoolgirl not an intelligent woman.

Stars: Cameron Diaz, Kate Winslet, Jude Law, Jack Black, Eli Wallach, Edward Burns, Rufus Sewell
Running time: 136 mins
Rating: Two stars