3 stars
Directed by Nancy Myers
Columbia Universal

The romantic comedy is a deceptively difficult beast.

Desperate to be different, but frequently mediocre, the entire “Ro-co” genre is plagued by type casting and cringe-inducing clichés. Add Christmas and Cameron Diaz to the package and you’ve got sugary sweet spelled out in green and red Christmas lights.

Unless, like “The Holiday,” you make the most of the mistletoe you’ve been dealt and buck the romantic comedy curse.

“The Holiday” begins with a one-time voice-over by Iris (Kate Winslet), a wedding announcement writer for a London paper, who is both shocked and heartbroken to learn that the unrequited love of her life is to be the topic of her next report.

Cut to: sunny, feng-shuied Los Angeles where ambitious film publicist Amanda (Cameron Diaz) has just kicked out her cheating boyfriend. Suffering from stress-induced throat spasms, Amanda decides to get away.

A quick internet search leads her to Iris, whose self-pity has induced contemplations of suicide, and with nothing in common but their mutual state of rejection and a love of playing air guitar to Top 40 hits, the two women decide to swap houses for the holidays.

It doesn’t take a Harvard degree to figure out what happens next. Writer and director Nancy Myers (“Father of the Bride”) employs every standard plot twist in the romantic-comedy game to prime us for the climactic life-change each woman is about to experience.

Amanda suffers from acute culture shock before Graham (a smoldering and sensitive Jude Law) takes her frolicking in the English countryside. Iris does water aerobics with an old Hollywood screenwriter, Arthur Abbott (veteran actor Eli Wallach, “Mystic River”), whose creaky wisdom leads her to Miles (Jack Black, playing against type), a cultured score-composer who pens her a melody using “only the good notes.”

The script is riddled with clunky lines—“When the Santa Anas blow all bets are off. Anything can happen.” And yes, there’s a song from the Garden State soundtrack. Although “The Holiday” lacks the sentimental humor of the “Father of the Bride” movies (not to mention no gay Martin Short) and offers a less timely subject matter than that of “Something’s Gotta Give” (not to mention no nude Diane Keaton) it still manages to win us over.

Why? Because it overcomes the weaknesses of its genre by playing them as strengths. It isn’t a masterpiece—it’s fluff and Myers knows this. It’s why her pictures are successful.

The familiar and practically obligatory scenes of any romantic comedy become endearing when they give us the accurate awkwardness of Iris and Miles’s first date, in which he attempts to make light of an “accidental boob graze,” and the hilarious spectacle of drunken Amanda perusing the aisles of an English market in search of fuel for her post break-up carb binge. The jury is still out on whether or not Diaz was actually allowed to consume any of her high- calorie purchases.

It isn’t the material, but the proper execution of a fluffy film that matters, so casting is key—plus, it doesn’t hurt that Myers wrote the script with her leading actors in mind. Jude Law is an obvious choice as the romantic book-lover with more baggage than the average bachelor. Black is best in the few moments when he’s himself, working those eyebrows and serenading Iris with movie themes at the local Blockbuster (observe his incredulous onlookers closely and you may recognize one!)

As a significantly less annoying Bridget Jones, Winslet is appropriately frazzled and even Diaz finds her niche, playing up the blonde, Californian cookie-cutter to an entertaining degree.

In the hands of a lesser filmmaker, the movie’s premise could have been little more than a schlocky script, fleshed out by A-listers looking to bank some cash and keep their visibility.

Instead, Myers & Co. give us a movie that’s both humble and entertaining with just the right amount holiday spirit to make it sweet without being sickening.

Bottom line: A feel-good Christmas flick that finds success by knowing its place.