Nancy Meyers’ isn’t exactly a director known for either her subtlety or for her ability to know when to quit. Even her good films like “Something’s Gotta Give” and “Baby Boom” have a ghastly problem with length, while execrable efforts like “What Women Want” and “The Father of the Bride” (and its sequel) so overstay their welcome it’s a wonder people still watch them. No, whether she’s writing, directing or doing both at the same time Meyers is decidedly from the school saying more is more and less isn’t worth the effort, and as talented as she is that’s definitely a fault I hope one day she can finally correct.

Thankfully, the woman is talented, amazingly so sometimes, especially with dialogue, and her latest romantic effort “The Holiday” is certainly no exception. Better, even though this movie does showcase many of the filmmaker’s lesser talents it also contains a myriad of her better ones, much of this dual fish-out-of-water fairy tale so heartwarming and ebullient it was impossible for me to not walk out of the theater with a huge grin on my face. No, this Cameron Diaz and Kate Winslet concoction certainly isn’t the best thing I’ve seen this year, not the best by a long shot, but it is entertaining, and when the chips come down and all is finally said and done that’s one thing I’ll take at the multiplex any day.

Iris (Kate Winslet, “Little Children”) is a British newspaper columnist in love with fellow writer Jasper (Rufus Sewell, “The Illusionist”). The only problem? He doesn’t love her back, instead only thinking of his coworker as a wonderful friend, even forgetting to tell her he’s getting engaged. Wanting to get away, Iris posts her small country cottage on a website dealing in holiday house swapping, hoping against all hope someone will respond to her ad so she can be someplace else other than home for the Christmas holiday.

Enter Amanda (Cameron Diaz, “In Her Shoes”), the owner of a prosperous Los Angeles advertising agency specializing in cutting movie trailers. She’s just thrown out her musician boyfriend Ethan (Edward Burns, “The Groomsmen”) ostensibly for having affair but really because the woman is exceptionally good at self-sabotaging her relationships. But whatever the reason for this heartbreak, Amanda wants to get away, and two weeks in England sounds like just the ideal ticket for the normally workaholic career woman and her continuously bruised romantic ego.

Soon Iris is running around Amanda’s L.A. home making friends with her neighbors and friends, including aging screenwriter Arthur (Eli Wallach, “Mystic River,” “The Good, The Bad and The Ugly”) and film composer Miles (Jack Black, “King Kong”), while Amanda tries to adjust to Iris’ country lifestyle, inadvertently falling into the arms of her sexy older brother Graham (Jude Law) in the process. Neither woman is looking for love to enter into their vacation, but with their defenses down coincidence strikes and both girls end up with more of an emotionally spellbinding holiday than either anticipated.

Truth be told, this movie isn’t rocket science. If you don’t know what happens than you certainly don’t watch enough cinematic entertainment. This thing is about as predictable as Mom’s Apple Pie and, thankfully, just as delicious. “The Holiday” may be corny and cliché but that still doesn’t make it any less of a sublimely heartwarming and emotionally rapturous corny cliché. Winslet and Diaz both hit this thing out of the park, while Law, Black (shockingly) and Wallach (who nearly steals the picture) lend such able support it’s impossible not to be at least a wee bit impressed. They roll their way through Meyers’ witty repartee and captivating bon mots brilliantly, each of them making the movie an almost picture-perfect delight seemingly beginning to end.

Still, a person can’t help but ask themselves why a film this slight has to be an almost ghastly 140 minutes. There is no reason for this thing to go on as long as it does, Meyers throwing in so many extraneous bits that to say I squirmed a bit in my theater seat is to ignore the worn out portion of fabric formerly underneath my posterior after it was finally over. I looked at my watch a good three or four times, and I don’t care how good your movie is when a person does that then over length is a problem that unquestionably should have been addressed in the editing room.

Yet “The Holiday” still managed to win me over. There is a radiant romantic wonderment to it all that’s unavoidably inebriating, and by the time New Year’s Eve rolled around in the picture I was quite ready to grab a glass of champagne and join in on the fun myself. This is a movie that understands the beautify of falling in love, and even if things don’t ultimately work out like we’d planned those blissful early moments of its rapture are certainly ones we never do forget.

That’s more than enough to make me smile. More, it’s enough to make me forget the picture’s failings. Meyers may still have a ways to go towards crafting a feature that I can’t find fault with, and I’m not about to admit some of her schmaltz isn’t enough to not curdle my stomach to the point of retching. Even so, this is still one vacation at the Cineplex I wouldn’t mind taking again, if only because the filmmaker and her cast have left me on such a high I’m having trouble caring about the problems. The film’s a joy, “The Holiday” an emotional trip worthy of an audience’s embrace.

Film Rating: êêê  (out of 4)