Netflix Removes Major Christmas Movie Just as the Holidays Began

It's officially the time of year to binge-watch Christmas movies, but there's one that disappeared from your Netflix list last week, just as the season was getting underway. Beloved holiday rom-com The Holiday expired from Netflix on Tuesday, Nov. 30, though it wasn't on the usual "leaving this month" lists. Fans will need to turn elsewhere to see the movie this year.

The Holiday stars Kate Winslet, Cameron Diaz, Jude Law and Jack Black in a holiday romance for the ages. Released in 2006, it was written and directed by Nancy Meyers, and it tracks the parallel stories of two women who are exhausted by their careers and their love lives at home. They meet in an online "home swap" program and agree to trade places for the holidays — Iris (Winslet) leaves her home in London to stay at Amanda's (Diaz) home in Los Angeles, and vice versa. There, Amanda falls in love with Iris' book editor (Law) while Iris falls for Miles (Black).

All in all, the movie is a quaint taste of Christmas with a romantic twist. It was well-received in its time and is fondly remembered. It was considered a commercial success, opening at No. 3 at the box office in 2006 and earning enough money to be the twelfth highest-grossing film by a female director in the 2000s, according to a report by Indie Wire.

Still, a closer look at The Holiday reveals some faults. The movie has an average score of 5.7 out of 10 among film critics according to Rotten Tomatoes. The "critical consensus" there reads: "While it's certainly sweet and even somewhat touching, The Holiday is so thoroughly predictable that audiences may end up opting for an early check-out time."

That being said, many critics confessed that this was what they expected and even hoped for from the movie, so there is no shame in sticking to a tried-and-true formula. In fact, within that formula, many people think The Holiday does some interesting things. Many praise the chemistry between Winslet and Black in particular. Sadly, critic Rex Reed of The New York Observer seemed to strike a chord in his assessment that the ending "diminish[es] a lot of the film's good intention."