Iris is in love with a man who is about to marry another woman. Across the globe, Amanda realizes the man she lives with has been unfaithful. Two women who have never met and live 6000 miles apart, find themselves in the exact same place. They meet online at a home exchange website and impulsively switch homes for the holiday. Iris moves into Amanda's L.A. house in sunny California as Amanda arrives in the snow covered English countryside. Shortly after arriving at their destinations, both women find the last thing either wants or expects: a new romance. Amanda is charmed by Iris' handsome brother Graham and Iris, with inspiration provided by legendary screenwriter Arthur, mends her heart when she meets film composer Miles.

I like Nancy Meyers in her short directorial career she has shown that she can make movies that are what most people would consider “chick flicks” that are still entertaining enough that the guys who are dragged along to them can still enjoy them with the faired sex. But I wonder in the three years since her last movie Something’s Gotta Give if she has been wronged by a man in her life and she decided to take it on every male that got dragged to her next film because that’s what it felt like as I endured the 132 minutes of this film. Oh, no it couldn’t be mercifully short at say 90 minutes now this movie had to keep going and going like a female energizer bunny hell bent on torturing those forced to sit through it. I was bored literally out of my freaking mind throughout most of the middle of the movie. Had the movie clocked in at the 90 minute time span like many movie in it’s genre it might have been bearable but the extra 45 minutes was enough to make you want to slit your wrists for release.

Why was the movie so unbearable and so boring, simple the characters were the same boring, and unbearable. I mean it’s really heard to be drawn in and enthralled by a film when its characrers are cookie cutter clichés. We got Jude Law the smarmy, uptight, sexy British editor who seemed to be channeling Hugh Grant. We got Cameron Diaz the rich stuck up Hollywood girl who is forced to live down from her normal class style. We have Kate Winslet the cute hopeless romantic who can just never find love channeling Bridgett Jones. And then we got Jack Black the most unfathomable of romantic characters playing a loveable crazy Jack Black. I mean any or all of the actors were inner changeable because they were cookie cutter clichés of about a dozen chick flicks.

The movie spends endless time on Cameron and Jude and then does Jack and Kate as kind of afterthought. Which isn’t really too bad because Cameron and Jude in the movie were like that rich ripped out of the enquirer like couple that was almost believable. It’s like they are so in love with themselves they can only be someone who is the same completely enamored by their own fame and fortune. It was like the national enquirer spit up TomKat or any other of the silly names they make up for celebrity couples but the problem is I am not the least bit interested in TomKat and I was completely bored by CamJude.

Then there is Kate and Jack who have about as much chemistry as oil and water. I thought that Kate and Eli Wallach who plays a 80 year old screenwriter had more chemistry than Jack and Kate did, in fact I was cheering for her to go with Eli over Jack. For about 45 minutes to an hour in the middle of the movie nothing happens and I mean nothing, if that right there doesn’t make you not want to see the movie I am not sure what I can that will save you from 132 minutes of mind numbing torture.

Grade: D+