You’ve perhaps seen the TikToks. Women, tucked up on their sofas with a box of Quality Street chocolate and a large glass of Malbec, settling in for their annual viewing of The Holiday (or maybe their first-ever watch, if they’re disgustingly young), suddenly overwhelmed by lust. Not just any lust, though. A very specific kind of longing, directed squarely at Jude Law’s character, Graham.
Yes, that Graham. Rosy-cheeked, sweater-clad, and nearly always bathed in the kind of soft, golden light that suggests he is a Very Good Man™. Nearly two decades after Nancy Meyers’s festive rom-com hit screens, the character’s found himself as the epicenter of online thirst for fall/winter 2024.
Search “Jude Law The Holiday” on the app and you’ll find women dubbing December “Jude Law flirting season.” There are edits of his scenes—his stolen glances, his blush-inducing smile—soundtracked by Lana Del Rey. There are posts captioned, “Watching The Holiday for the plot: The plot = Jude Law flirting.” There are T-shirts for sale on Etsy with the slogan, “That scene in The Holiday where Jude Law puts his glasses on is the hottest he’s ever been.”
To me it makes a lot of sense. First and foremost, duh, Jude Law is outrageously fit. He was fit in 1999’s The Talented Mr. Ripley. He was fit as the smarmy Alfie in 2004. He’s still fit now.
But Graham isn’t just Jude Law being fit; he’s Jude Law being fit and kind and loving and stable. And I’d argue that’s exactly the kind of crush the girlies need at this moment in history. He’s the ultimate palate cleanser after a year dominated by people bratting too close to the sun from June until November.
If you’ve watched the film recently, you’ll know what I mean. But in case your mum doesn’t send you texts every year from November 15, onwards, asking when you’ll be able to watch it together (love you mum), let me catch you up.
When we first meet book editor Graham (actually a nepo baby!), he’s drunk yet rakishly charming, showing up at his sister Iris’s (Kate Winslet) adorable English Surrey cottage, desperate for a pee. He inadvertently crosses paths with high-flying Californian career girl Cameron Diaz’s Amanda, who’s renting the cottage for a Christmas spent sad and alone, recovering from getting cheated on. They end up having sex. (Of course they do.) And the audience ends up falling for him too. (Of course we do.)
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Yes, he appears to be a bit of a shagger. (He keeps getting calls from other girls.) Yes, his wardrobe lands somewhere between an aughts Burton ad and Jeremy Clarkson now. But he’s also impossibly handsome. Those bright blue eyes! That tousled hair with the little aughts curls at the neck! That surreally deep tan for someone who doesn’t ever mention just coming back from a three-week trip to a Canary Island! And soon we learn that beneath the playboy exterior, Graham is a ridiculously emotionally developed, widowed father of two, navigating grief while lovingly raising his daughters. He talks about how he cries a lot. He unashamedly says “I love you” within about three days of meeting Amanda. He’s supportive of her big career. And he’s daft enough to have created a character called Mr. Napkin Head, which his girls force him to perform for his new love interest. (It’s exactly what you’re imagining and also weirdly sexy in its silliness.) That’s before you even get to the fact he can sew, owns a cow, and has built his kids an incredible fairy light-filled den in their bedroom—the kind you’d have killed for as a 10-year-old.
What I’m saying is that Graham—despite telling a few white lies here and there—is an actual grown up. He’s settled. Stable. A single dad with his priorities straight. He gives Amanda space to process the mess of her break-up and the childhood trauma that’s clearly meant she has an avoidant attachment style. (A lot happens in circa three days.) And to viewers he feels like a safe space—a man who’s already done the hard work of figuring out who he is, with no trace of the insecurity or chaos that characterizes so many of today’s leading men. The kind of guy who would pick you up from the after-parties, make you a Sunday roast, put on a David Attenborough documentary, and make sure you drank enough water.
It’s this combination of emotional maturity and actual maturity that has TikTok users hooked. In a time when dating discourse often revolves around the horror of situationships; how much of a hellscape dating apps are, and men generally being dicks, he’s the kind of romantic lead everyone’s craving.
In fact, just look at the characters audiences have fallen in love with this year. While in the past the most lusted-after male leads have tended to fall into two camps—bad boys who need to be tamed or floppy-haired man-children—in 2024 there’s been a shift. Graham is arguably a direct predecessor of Adam Brody’s warm, charming rabbi in Nobody Wants This. Bridgerton’s focus on Luke Newton’s flawed but ultimately loyal, kind, and gentle Colin feels linked. So does our obsession with sweet, funny Andrew Garfield and his Chicken Shop flirtation with Amelia Dimoldenberg. It’s nice guys (who can talk about their feelings) coming first.
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But Graham’s appeal extends beyond romance. There’s something more to it, I think. For those of us whose lives revolve around tiny flats, late nights, and endless doomscrolling, even as we head towards our 40s, he offers a vision of a slower life. Falling for Graham isn’t just about falling for Jude Law (though, obviously, that helps), it’s about stepping into his small-town idyll, trading city chaos and late-night work calls for an escapist fantasy, one where you’re not just falling for hot, kind Jude Law, but also stepping into his ready-made, perfect family and even more perfect cottage, where the wildest adventure is a hot chocolate-fueled car ride through snowy lanes, and going for lunch doesn’t involve scouring endless TikToks of best restaurants in London, just heading to what looks like the nearest National Trust property. It’s not a life I actually want, but there’s inherited nostalgia to it—the same “simple life” appeal that people find attractive about farmy trad wife TikToks, just without any of the weird trad wife stuff. In fact, for a man in 2006, Graham is surprisingly progressive. (It makes sense: he was written by a woman.)
And now for the plot twist: a sequel might be on the horizon. Nancy Meyers recently posted a video with Law, her first reunion with him since filming wrapped nearly two decades ago. In the clip, she cheekily asks, “Is there going to be a sequel?” Law’s response? A sly grin, followed by a familiar flourish: draping a napkin on his head and donning glasses over the top, resurrecting Mr. Napkin Head in all his ridiculous glory.
Is it happening? Who knows. But for now, we’ll be here, rewatching The Holiday and thirsting over Graham, our handsome, emotionally evolved rom-com king.