“LAST HOLIDAY” – THE PROGNOSIS IS NOT GOOD

What would you do if suddenly you were given dreadful news that you had a terminal illness and had only three to four weeks? Would you drop everything, blow your savings, and go on the last vacation of your life? That’s the premise of Last Holiday, a remake of the 1950’s British comedy with the same title that starred Alec Guiness.

The Flick Chicks, film, video, movie reviews, critics, Judy Thorburn, Victoria Alexander, Polly Peluso, Shannon Onstot, Jacqueline Monahan, Tasha Chemplavil, Last Holiday, Queen Latifah, LL Cool J, Timothy Hutton, Giancarlo Esposito, Alicia Witt, Gerard Depardieu, Jane Adams

In this revamped up to date version, a star vehicle for Queen Latifah, she is cast as Georgia Byrd, employed as a shy, mousy saleswoman/demonstrator in the cookware department of the Kragen Department store in New Orleans. Georgia has dreams for the future and wants more out of life than being an unappreciated store employee. At home, Georgia loves to cook and hopes of one day becoming a gourmet chef like her idols, real life Food Network celebrity chef Emeril Lagasee and (fictional character) Chef Didier, played by Gerard Depardieu. She’s been documenting her dreams in a scrapbook labeled “possibilities” which also include photos of a bride and groom with their faces cut out and replaced by head shots of Georgia and the fellow employee, equally shy Sean Williams (LL Cool J, cast against type) she secretly has a crush on, not realizing the feelings are mutual.

After bumping her head one day, Georgia is taken to Indian Dr. Gupta (Ranjit Chowdhry) at the store’s in house clinic, and given a cat scan which supposedly reveals the bad news. The X-ray shows she has deadly lesions in her brain caused by a virus and, at the most, she has a month to live. Making matters worse, Georgia is then told that her HMO does not cover treatment or surgery, which costs $300,000, not including anesthesia. So what does the girl do? After a brief period of feeling sorry for herself and crying why me, Georgia quits her job, liquidates all her savings and decides to blow it all by taking an extravagant trip to, of all places in the world –if you can believe it- Prague, which she’s booked on line at Travelocity (a great product placement ad) and spend her last days living the life of luxury at one of the most ritzy and expensive hotels in the world, the Grand Hotel Pupp (pronounced “poop”). At $4,000 a night, not including all the amenities she indulges in, Georgia most likely could have paid for the surgery herself. Nevertheless, an expected Cinderella type transformation takes place in a beauty makeover segment that showcases Georgia trying on gowns, having a spa treatment, and so forth with a result that comes as no surprise. In fact, the predictability factor is so high in this film that segments appear to be recycled from a formula we’ve seen over and over again. Attempting to snowboard for the first time, Georgia winds up in an out of control venture that has her flying though the air and speeding down the mountains at record speed like an Olympian. A parachuting free jump over a dam, an unlikely gambling win in the casino and a chance to cook in the kitchen alongside one of her idols, Chef Didier also take place, all which lack believability.

Georgia’s spending behavior has everyone believing she must be someone special, either a wealthy socialite or some other powerful and influential figure. Now, what’s the chance that Georgia would be staying at the very same resort as the party of guests that include the nasty retail mogul, owner of the store where she’s employed, Matthew Kragan (Timothy Hutton), his mistress (Alicia Witt), Congressman (Michael Nouri) and the Senator (Giancarlo Esposito) who failed to make a promised show at a recent church service back home? You can’t get more contrived than this. Of course, Kragan’s curiosity gets the better of him and he sets out a plan to learn who this woman really is, since he wouldn’t want her ruining whatever dealings he has up his sleeve.

Like we don’t know where this is all headed. Who are they kidding? We all know Georgia is not really going to die. But, in the end there is a lesson to be learned for everyone involved. Georgia discovers that she needs to laugh more and love more, because life is too short not to enjoy it. It takes a sweet, smart black woman to be inspiration for the stereotyped clueless white people to change their lives. Enough of these racial stereotypes, white, black or any other!

Queen Latifah is talented and exudes lots of charm, but as likeable as she is she can’t save this lackluster attempt at a feel good comedy, just another in a line of ridiculous silly comedies that have done nothing to improve the Queen’s career. I am still waiting for her to come through with something equally worthy of her Academy Award nominated role in Chicago? If nothing, a much-needed vacation from comedy duds like this one couldn’t hurt. It certainly wouldn’t kill her.