This “Holiday” fan theory suggests Iris and Amanda are both dead, and this is a lot to process
Nancy Meyers, meet Death of the Author: There’s a new fan theory in town about The Holiday, and while it’s def not what Meyers had in mind, we’re a little obsessed with it. Not to generalize, but it seems fairly safe to assume that if you’re a human being with cable and an interest in holiday rom-coms, you’ve probably seen The Holiday enough times that Mr. Napkin Head feels like a distant family friend. So yeah, many of us have spent a lot of time watching and thinking about The Holiday.
But this little coincidence the fan theory hinges on never occurred to us!
The theory arrives via Entertainment Weekly, and the writer points out that both Kate Winslet and Cameron Diaz have a moment where plots could’ve veered off course and they both could’ve died — Iris with her haphazard suicide attempt, Amanda with her “I can’t breathe” panic attack. So…
"What if these two women, thousands of miles and several time zones away, shuffled off their mortal coils at the same time...and their souls became entangled, presumably due to their complementing themes?"
The writer then suggests that the rest of the movie is these two characters, along with Arthur, in a sort of limbo. Here, they’re given the opportunity to self-actualize before moving on. We’ve gotta say, it seems weirdly plausible.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BDi5zH18vxU?feature=oembed
Well, not plausible in the sense that we believe this was the intent.
But, like, somebody could write a very convincing academic paper on this and tweet it at Meyers and she’d have to be like…
Amanda gets Graham, who gives her everything her cheating ex didn’t, and falling in love with him enables her to overcome her childhood trauma and finally cry. Iris gets somebody who values her as she should be valued. And she gets to finally tell off horrible Jasper and find her “gumption.” Arthur gets recognized for his work, rediscovers his confidence, helps Iris, and has a really rewarding personal arc all around.
Maybe this is just really entertaining fan speculation — or maybe Nancy Meyers’ work is secretly a whooooole lot darker than we all thought. Either way, we def want to re-watch The Holiday now. You know, for research.
