CORRECTION

A review Friday in the What's Up section misidentified the actor who plays Ethan in the new movie "The Holiday." Edward Burns plays the role.

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Affirming nothing less than "love's power to alter and define our lives," this uplifting yet predictable Christmas confection comes with a message: Despite a worldwide rash of "unrequited love -- the kind that almost kills its victims," there can be healing and renewal.

Iris (the always sparkling Kate Winslet) has been cheated on. After stringing her along "for three miserable years," Jasper (Rufus Sewell as a likable louse) becomes engaged -- to someone else. A wedding columnist by day at the Daily Telegraph in London, an isolated Iris spends her nights in a country cottage, tucked away from the London nightlife and far from reality. Replete with a pond, rolling hills and roaming sheep, her cozy retreat allows her to indulge in the comforts of inertia and indecision.

Meanwhile, across the pond, high-powered movie-trailer producer Amanda (the beautiful, believably befuddled Cameron Diaz) is living the ultimate West Coast yuppie life: contemporary dream house in the Hollywood Hills, celebrity clientele and a super salary to match. Amanda sleeps with her BlackBerry, and blithely proclaims -- less than convincingly -- "C'mon, nobody has time for sex." Alas, her boyfriend Ethan (a smarmy but sympathetic Edward Norton) apparently does.

While Amanda describes herself as "loser, loner and complicated wreck," she is alternately drunk, and like Iris, sulking. Desperately in need of an instant Internet-enabled escape, they decide to swap homes.

Into Iris' new L.A. life steps Ethan's buddy Miles (Jack Black), who -- you guessed it -- is being cheated on. For the most part, the two don't really date so much as commiserate. Beyond the sloppy hair, sloppy attire and sloppy demeanor, the endearing yet one-dimensional Black is woefully out-acted at every turn by either Winslet, or more often, Iris' other date, Eli Wallach. As Arthur Abbot, one-time screenwriter extraordinaire, Wallach is marvelous. Aging yet astute, he practically twinkles and provides the otherwise treacly story some much needed balance.

Back at the idyllic English cottage, Amanda is visited by Iris' boozy big brother, Graham (played with refreshing restraint by perennial playboy Jude Law). Graham nonchalantly inoculates their friendship with "I tend to hurt women simply by being myself." No problem: Amanda practically throws herself at him and attempts to rationalize it for us: "This is what a vacation should be; you vacate your life."

But can you?

Between the misery and mistletoe, these far-flung pairings serve as a paean to the power of starting over, their healing surely helped along by the yuletide spirit and a fantastic score. While certainly romantic, the script by Nancy Meyers ("Something's Gotta Give," "What Women Want") leaves too many questions unanswered and glosses over anything even resembling the reality of conflict in modern relationships. As a result, it's difficult to believe these indelicately duped and dumped characters actually heal. We are left to share Iris' fervent hope that in time, despite the pain of duplicity and deceit, "a little part of your soul will finally come back."