***/*****
If you were given only three weeks to live, would you A) hightail it to Venice and spend the remaining 21 days in the Presidential Suite of Il Palazzo, sipping Chianti and gorging on Linguini Vongole, all while gazing on the majestic Grand Canal, B) throw yourself a pity party and hand out parting gifts to friends and family with the requisite question, "Why me?" written all over them, or C) speed up the inevitable and jump off the nearest bridge? How you answer the aforementioned question will not only reveal whether you're a cynic or an optimist, but how well you'll respond to the new romantic comedy, Last Holiday, starring Queen Latifah.
Like Fun with Dick and Jane, The Producers and Yours, Mine and Ours, Last Holiday is Hollywood's fourth consecutive remake to hit theatres in nearly a month. Based on the 1950 British comedy of the same name, starring the venerated Alec Guinness, Last Holiday reexamines the classic what if theory, only this time with a female character in the lead role.
Georgia Byrd (Queen Latifah) has never been lucky in love, nor in her professional life. In fact, Georgia's one of those rare women who's so sweet and unassuming that every night she dines with a motherless neighbor kid (Jascha Washington, Antwone Fisher), preparing him a multitude of gourmet treats while watching the Emeril Lagasse Show, without even tasting the fruits of her labor. So, when a bump on the head midway through a conversation with a gorgeous appliance salesman named Sean (LL Cool J) leads to the grim diagnosis of a potentially life-threatening brain tumor, Georgia's life seems like it could be over even before it's begun.
Of course, when Georgia's health insurance won't cover the operation to remove her brain tumor, and her vile boss ignores her as she tries to tell him she's dying, Georgia decides to cut her losses and cashes in her savings for the vacation of a lifetime. Arriving in style via helicopter to the posh Grand Hotel Pupp in Karlovy Vary, a picturesque resort in the Czech Republic, Georgia immediately strikes up a friendship with the gregarious staff, including an acclaimed French chef named Didier (Gérard Depardieu), who takes a liking to the New Orleans native when she orders an entire night's worth of specials just for dinner. But all this adoration doesn't sit well with Matthew Kragen (Timothy Hutton), a wealthy retail magnate, who thinks Georgia's nothing more than a corporate spy posing as a fun loving socialite, in order to expose an unauthorized business deal for a new group of Kragen department stores.
Although the film's premise leaves much to the imagination, in order for a romantic comedy like Last Holiday to truly succeed the following criteria is expressly required: a witty script filled with humor, insight and poignancy, a talented cast well versed at juggling comedy and drama, and an experienced director who's shrewd enough to trust his instincts without going overboard and draining the life out of an otherwise good-humored film. Despite the fact that Last Holiday never quite fulfills the aforementioned list, milking laughs from nearly half a dozen one-liners that are neither fresh nor snappy, its heart remains in the right place, even when it fails to generate little more than sympathetic giggles from its target audience.
Fans of the original Last Holiday will likely be disappointed by the way in which screenwriters Jeffrey Price and Peter S. Seaman (Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas) have taken J.B. Priestley's clever script and turned it into a modern-day fairytale, complete with a designer makeover montage and cameo appearances by Emeril Lagasse and Smokey Robinson. Of course, anytime Hollywood remakes a film that is considered a classic, there are always those skeptics who are so hell-bent on labeling it a fraud that they spend the entire movie comparing it to the original without even appreciating what it gets right. The whole point of a movie like Last Holiday is to inspire viewers to lighten up, seize the moment and embrace life's monumental ups and downs with courage, grace and an unwavering sense of humor. And that's exactly what Last Holiday does, thanks to director Wayne Wang (Maid in Manhattan), who keeps the film moving without it becoming too sentimental.
Still, much of the film's heart comes from its stellar international cast, who infuse Last Holiday with a palpable sense of joy. In one of his last performances before retiring (Please say it ain't so), French superstar Gérard Depardieu proves once again why there's no role he can't conquer, elevating his character from a haughty, temperamental chef to someone the audience can actually relate to. While Ranjit Chowdhry (Mississippi Masala) scores big laughs, delivering a memorable performance as Georgia's high-strung neurologist. As for Last Holiday's star, Queen Latifah, not only does she up the film's status from genre fluff to heartwarming romantic comedy with merely the power of her presence, but she creates such a fun, irresistible character that viewers are happy to follow her even on a slightly turbulent Last Holiday.
