“Last Holiday” (Paramount Pictures)
Queen Latifah is Hollywood royalty but her movie is mostly a royal pain
“Last Holiday” is a sweet comedy that stars Queen Latifah. She has enough star power and charisma to make this movie more than it is, but what it is isn’t much. It is too predictable and too obvious in its key plot elements to make audiences do more than smile politely as they watch it.
Latifah plays a woman named Georgia who lives in Louisiana. For some reason she has kept her life on hold and only lives for the possibilities that might occur in the future. Then one day she learns she has a brain tumor and will die in three weeks.
This knowledge gives her the courage to live her dreams and she does this by flying to Europe and checking into a four star grand hotel. She goes skiing, she visits the spa, she buys herself some great clothes. Of course when she does this all the other guests decide she must be some important person and begin treating her as such.
The other guests include a Trump type business tycoon (Timothy Hutton) and a congressman (Giancarlo Esposito). Of course in this type of movie she also makes friends with the hired help and the hotel chef (the soon to be retired Gerard Depardieu)
Her potential boyfriend is played by LL Cool J, and he and the Queen make a handsome pair. The film could have used a little more romance and a little less “straightening out of other people’s lives.”
The problem with the movie is how predictable it is. How many movies have you seen where the lead character is going to die and then there is a twist Too many! And all the changes in the people she meets are so predictable. There isn’t a surprise in any one of them.
Latifah acts with warmth and she looks great, most of the time. Hutton is smarmy as the role requires. Depardieu is okay in a thankless role. Alicia Witt makes the most of her role as Hutton’s mistress.
The film is rated PG-13 for profanity.
Queen Latifah is an award winning actress. She deserves something better to use her talents in than this. It’s a sweet movie but a sometimes dull one. It is warm-hearted but way too predictable. It just should have been better.
I scored “Last Holiday” a seasonal 5 out of 10.
