I just saw this incredible film for the third time. Unlike what most people comment about this movie, it is more than just "delightful" and "whimsical", or worst yet calling it a screwball comedy. If you call Holiday a screwball comedy, you may as well call It's A Wonderful Life the same thing. There are distinct parallels between these two groundbreaking works. Both deal with strong dreams being crushed. But in the case of Lew Ayres' character it is his "place" in society that stops him from becoming a serious composer. And though he comes from a wealthy family he does not have the freedom that many believe (falsely) to chose what he truly wishes to do. In a tightly-wound capitalistic society as ours, the obligations to continue the legacy of money-making overwhelms the individual's desire to create what many believe is frivolous artistry. What many of us, as well as his father, fail to realize is when this desire is crushed apathy sets in. This brings up the singularly amazing theme of this movie, a theme Philip Barry uses in many of his works, that a society that chases wealth without conscience, that suppresses truly individualistic idealism is a society of superficial, mean-spirited and back-biting people. The party scene in Holiday is a clear-eyed view of our society and how lost we are. Everyone talks down about others under their breath, than hypocritically smiles and fawns over these same people to insure their own place in society. Those who refuse to go along with this status quo are relegated, as Hepburn,Ayres,and the Professor and his wife are, to the childrens' playroom until they "grow-up" and accept things as they are. This films warms an audience with it's superficial whimsy, as "...Wonderful Life" did, yet can drive a cold stare with its slashing and often hurtful glances at how we are all relegated to the playroom of society if we express criticism of the narrow-mindenness and suffocating aspects of capitalism.
Holiday should be an important lesson to many of us on not just how important Life is, but shows us how much more important it is to grasp on to what truly makes it worth living.
Holiday should be an important lesson to many of us on not just how important Life is, but shows us how much more important it is to grasp on to what truly makes it worth living.