Last Holiday may be a more poignant film than its predecessor, starring Alec Guinness in 1950. Based on the original script by J.B. Priestley, this Last Holiday is set in the surreal pre-Katrina New Orleans; the streets are not litter-free, but they’re free of abandoned refrigerators and rubble.
This fairy-tale, directed by Wayne Wang, begins with Georgia Byrd’s (Queen Latifah) riding the St. Charles streetcar from her Baptist Church to her modest shotgun house in Algiers. Once home, aspiring chef Georgia cooks an extravagant dinner with Emeril on the television, then offers the dinner to her friendly teenage neighbor and heats a tasteless frozen dinner for herself.
Before going to sleep Georgia retrieves her Book of Possibilities, a bound collection of her dreams and fantasies of a fulfilling, happier existence.
Georgia’s quiet life is interrupted by her agitated, insolent department store boss, who routinely ridicules his employees. Her boss is obsessed with profit and the market strategies of the corporation’s CEO, Matthew Kragen, who coincidently becomes the antagonist later in the movie.
Georgia’s infatuation with fellow employee Sean Matthews (LL Cool J) allows her to tolerate her boss’ unreasonable demands. During an awkward conversation with Sean, Georgia fumbles and bumps her head on a cabinet, which leads to a CAT scan. Unfortunately, the CAT scan reveals that Georgia has contracted Lamington’s disease and has only three weeks to live.
Upon hearing this unsettling news, Georgia decides to quit her job, withdraw her savings and finally pursue the dreams pasted in her Book of Possibilities. Georgia books a flight to the Czech Republic and checks into the extravagant Grandhotel Pupp to visit world famous Chef Didier (Gerard Depardieu). During her vacation Georgia indulges in every pleasure she previously denied herself. She naively and modestly experiences full body massages and even base-jumping.
However, her stay at the mountain lodge is not without unexpected company – Senator Dillings (Giancarlo Esposito) from New Orleans, ambitious Kragen (Timothy Hutton) and his mistress are negotiating a lucrative business deal at the hotel. Georgia’s grandeur incites curiosity in the other Americans, who initially regard her as a threat. However, her honesty and sincerity eventually warm the others’ cold hearts.This rag to riches story develops without the excessiveness one normally sees in a Queen Latifah movie. The movie indulges in only a few flamboyant scenes; it attempts to quietly charm the viewer. Queen Latifah’s trademark boldness is not reflected in her performance, it gives the movie a dramatic core, not comedic qualities. However, Last Holiday’s climax is spoiled without the gradual grace the movie’s introduction possessed. Any tragic theme is lost in Hollywood sentimentality.
The movie disappears within the fictitiousness of the Book of Possibilities. Eventually Georgia’s dreams of the future become her realities in the present. Her fantasies are set in the future, while New Orleanians, who similarly dream of a better existence, are contained in the past. The movie-magic that allows New Orleanians to see their city preserved in the beginning of the movie disappears by the end into the hills of Hollywood, not the bayous of Louisiana.
Kurt Schwartz can be reached at [email protected].
