BEFORE: We went out to a Chinese auction on Long Island yesterday - this is not an auction run by Asians, it's a fund-raising affair for a church or scout troop where people bid on donated items by buying tickets and placing them in little cups, sort of like a raffle. It's "Chinese" meaning strange, like in Chinese checkers or Chinese fire-drill. My brother-in-law and sister-in-law did well, winning 6 prize baskets, but I only bought $20 worth of tickets and won just one item, a plaque signed by Mookie Wilson of the 1986 Mets. I don't collect sports autographs, just ones from Star Wars actors, but I think I'll hang on to this one. I moved to NYC in 1986 for college, and became a Mets fan for a while - in the 1986 World Series I rooted for both teams, so I'll keep a piece of Mets nostalgia.
THE PLOT: A young man falls in love with a girl from a rich family. His unorthodox plan to go on holiday for the early years of his life is met with skepticism by everyone except for his fiancée's eccentric sister and long suffering brother.
AFTER: I'm not sure if this constitutes a love triangle or not, because it's clear that Cary Grant's character might be dating the wrong sister, but no one realizes it at the time. He's too hung up on Julia, the staid, boring sister, and Julia wants to mold him into a hard-working rich person. He wants to get there eventually, but having come up through the ranks as a hard worker in steel mills and such, he wants to take a few years off and see the world while he's young enough to enjoy it.
Johnny and Julia are so mismatched here, it's tough to see how they fell in love in the first place - while her sister Linda, though overprotective of Julia, eventually comes to believe that his spontaneity might be just what Julia needs in her life, so she stands up for Johnny and comes to admire him in the process. Linda would also like to travel and see the world, hey, you don't suppose...nah, that's crazy talk. What kind of man would pursue one sister, and then the other?
This highlights something that a lot of romantic comedies seem to forget - people tend to come together when they're of similar mindsets about the world. Sure, opposites sometimes attract, but I think that's an oversimplification, as well as a storywriting crutch. If two characters have similar outlooks, we the audience might think they're made for each other before they do or before the writers do - and that's how fan fiction was born.
Remember "Moonlighting"? Fans of that 80's show naturally assumed that Bruce Willis's character and Cybill Shepherd's character would get together, even though the whole premise of the show was that these were two very different people, with vastly different approaches to life. Eventually fans clamored to see their pairing, and then once it took place, there was a realization that not only would their relationship not work out (not without massive amounts of compromise, which would dilute each character's individuality and/or free will) but suddenly the tension was broken, suspense was lost, and there were few stories left to tell.
There's a double meaning to the title, because Grant's character wants to go on holiday, and the film is also set in the week between Christmas and New Year's, and some have pointed out that a New Year's Eve party is planned with very little notice - but perhaps we can assume that this family is so rich they can plan and cater a party within a couple days, get invitations messengered out to the city's most fashionable guests, who naturally would change their plans at the last minute in order to attend such a high-class function. So, no NITPICK POINT there.
Also starring Katherine Hepburn (last seen in "Woman of the Year"), Doris Nolan, Lew Ayres (last seen in "All Quiet on the Western Front"), Edward Everett Horton (last seen in "Arsenic and Old Lace"), Jean Dixon, Henry Kolker.
RATING: 3 out of 10 puppet shows
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