PLOT: After being told she has three weeks to live, a mousy New Orleans department store employee cashes in her retirement money and takes the trip of her dreams to a European resort. There, she enchants a bevy of politicians, businesspeople and a famous French chef.
Is Wayne Wang going to keep remaking Maid In Manhattan until he gets it right? Well, keep trying Wayne.
Last Holiday is a treacly and predictable fairytale about a lowly department store employee who cashes in her pension and becomes a high roller after being told she has three weeks to live. Plot details aside, it's really all about a blue-collar heroine showing those snobby rich folk a thing or two about how to live life to the fullest.
Personally, I suspect someone who never says "My God, how will I make it to my next paycheque?" is probably living a fuller life than me. But I digress.
The fact is, with her hair in a bun and dressed in cheap sweaters, Queen Latifah makes a more believable lumpen prole than J.Lo did in Wang's earlier Maid. She's also about ten times more likeable, which is pretty much the only arrow in Last Holiday's quiver.
A remake of a needless-to-say better Alec Guinness film from the '50s, the frothy Last Holiday gives us an almost-unrecognizably frumpy Latifah as Georgia Byrd, kitchen-wares salesgirl in a New Orleans department store called Kragen's. (Is it too soon to look at New Orleans and not think of floating sewage?)
A dedicated "foodie," she idolizes Emeril and a superstar chef Didier (Gerard Depardieu) and fantasizes about owning her own restaurant. She also fantasizes about Sean (LL Cool J), a co-worker who reciprocates the sighing and mooning in so obvious a manner that only characters in a bad romantic comedy could fail to notice.
In fact, seldom have two rappers been made to shut up so effectively. LL seems like he's on thorazine, and Latifah apparently forgot to pack the Whoopi Goldberg Acting School textbook that informed her noisy performances in Taxi and Bringing Down The House.
There's deus ex machina a'plenty here, starting with a bump on the head that sees Georgia diagnosed with a brain tumour that should kill her in three weeks. Well, hey, that's plenty of time to cash in her RRSPs and jet off to the Alpine resort where Chef Didier plies his craft. Arriving by helicopter and throwing money around like Elton John, she's assumed to be a high-roller --which attracts the attention of jerk billionaire Matthew Kragen (From the department store! What are the odds?) and an unprincipled black Senator (From her own state! What are the odds?). Kragen is Oscar winner Timothy Hutton, now reduced to playing tight-arsed caricatures.
But Chef Didier appreciates Georgia's foodie soul, opening his kitchen to her (warning: this film features "food porn" -- sizzling sauternes, garlic cloves, red meat reductions of various fatty sorts -- with risk of munchies).
Is Georgia really dying? Will she and Sean hook up? Will the rich folks discover the meaning of life? Will Emerill get a cameo? Are baby turnips really a delicacy? Can I stop asking obvious questions now? Good.
BOTTOM LINE: A souffle can never be too light. Unfortunately, Last Holiday is a movie. Treacly, predictable and simple-minded, this fairytale rom-com from the director of Maid In Manhattan has two things going for it -- Queen Latifah's smile and a gag order enforced on both her and co-star LL Cool J.
(This film is rated PG)
