Last Holiday

NEW YORK (CNS) — Somehow we never imagined in Hollywood we’d see Queen Latifah’s name sharing marquee space with the august English writer J.B. Priestley but stranger things have happened.

“Last Holiday” (Paramount) is a remake of the 1950 Alec Guinness


	“Last Holiday” (Paramount) The USCCB Office for Film & Broadcasting classification is A-III — adults. Motion Picture Association of America rating, PG-13 — parents strongly cautioned. Some material may be inappropriate for children under 13. The film contains a few instances of crude language, some frank sexual talk and innuendo, and an adulterous situation in an otherwise admirably wholesome film. The USCCB Office for Film\ & Broadcasting classification is A-III — adults. The Motion Picture Association of America rating is PG-13 — parents strongly cautioned. Some material may be inappropriate for children under 13.

British movie which had a script by Priestley. Despite changes in gender — Guinness’ character is now played by Latifah — and locale (the story begins in pre-Katrina New Orleans), the essentials are the same.

The result is a touching if improbable tale of dowdy spinster Georgia Byrd (Latifah), who works as a cookware salesclerk and at home takes pleasure making, but not eating, her own gourmet dishes. She also keeps a treasured “Book of Possibilities” with clippings of all the things she’d like to do but she is too timid to follow through.

There are even doctored “wedding” pictures of good-looking co-worker Sean (LL Cool J), on whom she has a secret crush.

When she begins to have her first substantive conversation with him, she bumps her head badly, and a CT scan reveals she has only a few weeks to live.

In short order, she takes her life savings and goes to Europe — to a deluxe hotel in the Czech Republic — where she gets a makeover and learns to live life more fully, changing the lives of fellow guests such as corrupt magnate Matthew Kragen (Timothy Hutton) — actually her store’s corporate bigwig — and less-than-altruistic politicians Senator Dillings (Giancarlo Esposito) and Congressman Stewart (Michael Nouri), whom Kragen is hoping to co-opt into helping his business interests. Kragen’s a married man, but he’s there with his secretary, Ms. Burns (Alicia Witt).

Director Wayne Wang’s retread is marred by some silly slapstick (a wacky snowboarding sequence goes on way too long), but mostly, though contrived, it’s a feel-good film with the marvelously empathetic Latifah at its heart.

Her Eliza Doolittle-like transformation from drab mouse to glamourpuss is fun to watch, and throughout it all Georgia never loses sight of the basics or her strong moral center. She chastises the senator, for instance, about not making his promised visit to her church back home. She reminds Kragen that he doesn’t have to be ruthless. She gives Ms. Burns a strong talking to about the futility and wrongness of her adulterous affair.

She has the kind of charisma that appeals to the masses, much as we’re told early screen actors such as Wallace Beery and Marie Dressler were far more liked by the public at large than more obvious stars such as Clark Gable and Joan Crawford.

The good supporting cast also includes Gerard Depardieu as Didier, a chef she’s always admired. He warms to her immediately, as she has such a receptive and appreciative palette for his kitchen concoctions, and doesn’t make substitutions as Kragen and his cronies do. Throughout the film, food is used as a metaphor for enjoying life’s bounty.

It’s a pity the generally wholesome film — about recognizing life’s possibilities and having the courage to follow through on them — is marred by some brief but frank sexual talk.

The script (adapted from the original by Jeffrey Price and Peter S. Seaman) could be a lot sharper, too, but it’s predictable in the best possible way, and if not exactly high art should prove a poignant crowd-pleaser.

Forbes is director of the Office for Film & Broadcasting of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.