It’s easy to hail the Queen – Latifah, that is. She was one of hip-hop’s first to make the transition from rap to “it’s a wrap.”
And over the past decade, her onscreen comfort zone has only grown and deepened. Even when the vehicle she’s driving hasn’t been roadworthy – remember “Taxi” with Jimmy Fallon – she’s usually upheld her end with irrepressible appeal. And sometimes more. In 2002, she was nominated for an Oscar and a Golden Globe for her supporting role as prison matron Mama Morton in “Chicago.”
One of her edgiest roles, as a bank robber in 1996’s “Set It Off,” got her an Independent Spirit Award nomination. It will be exciting when she finds a film that honors her leading-lady chops. That’s another way of saying the often-sweet but middling “Last Holiday” isn’t it.
Directed by Wayne Wang (“The Joy Luck Club”), this comedy about a woman who goes on a Euro-spree when she learns she has weeks to live is more candy corn than Capra corn. Too bad. Because embedded in Georgia Byrd’s sojourn are some truths about the working class worth pondering.
Still, Latifah struts enough of her stuff to give the movie some guilt-free pleasures.
Georgia works in the cookware section of Kragens, a fictional department store in New Orleans. While selling Calphalon and Le Creuset, Georgia whips up Emeril Lagasse-style eats for the customers. “Moochers,” her micromanaging boss calls them. He’s a midlevel louse and a devotee of retail guru Matthew Kragen’s management theories, the gist of which can be summed up by the title of his book: “Young, Hip, Rich.”
At night Georgia goes home and sharpens her kitchen skills watching the Food Network. Bam! She serves her tween neighbor a delectable dish, then digs into her Lean Cuisine. Georgia is a woman who dreams big but lives hunkered within her means.
She also nurses a crush on Sean Matthews (LL Cool J). (The hip-hop star’s winning presence provides still more evidence of why rappers continue to be go-to performers for casting directors.)
During a pas de deux of awkward flirting, Georgia hits her head. She’s told by the company physician, Dr. Gupta, that she has a rare virus that has led to a terminal condition. She has three weeks to live.
It’s a flimsy setup. And if it seems familiar in a old-movie way, it’s because “Last Holiday” is an update of a 1950 British movie starring Alec Guinness as the terminal vacationer.
The plot takes our God-loving, frugal gourmet, who has never been “north of Mobile, Alabama,” to the swank Grandhotel Pupp in the Czech Republic.
Because “Last Holiday” shamelessly embraces coincidence, not only is Kragen (Timothy Hutton) there with a woman not his wife (Alicia Witt), he also has a congressman and a senator in tow. Speaking of coincidence, Louisiana Sen. Dillings (Giancarlo Esposito) was scheduled to appear at Georgia’s church the week before to discuss community redevelopment. He was a no-show.
As Georgia’s life wanes, other lives will be transformed. Nary a one of these epiphanies surprises – but a few charm. When Georgia gives Ms. Burns (Witt) a dressing down in the spa, it’s a lesson not so much in civility as in class camaraderie. And Gérard Depardieu, playing one of Georgia’s culinary heroes, provides a nice tone shift. (An alternate title could be “Georgia’s Feast.”)
Too many middle-of-the-road comedies don’t invite critical ire so much as “what might have been” regrets. “Last Holiday” is so willfully ebullient it has trouble with its nastier characters and themes: corruption, graft, arrogance.
Old Hollywood by way of Billy Wilder and Frank Capra was much better at screwy humor and social commentary. Wang does heartstrings better than hilarity. A silly snowboarding scene feels ski-lifted from “I Love Lucy.”
Of course, he does have it half right: We do love Latifah.
The 1950 version of “Last Holiday” is described as a black comedy. One is left to wonder: Just because this one features an African-American lead, does that mean it must shy away from its darker shadings?
For a movie about overcoming fear and living out loud, “Last Holiday’s” too-tidy conclusion isn’t a sign of hope so much as a lack of nerve.
Film critic Lisa Kennedy can be reached at 303-820-1567 or lkennedy@denverpost.com.
** 1/2 | “Last Holiday”
PG-13 for some sexual reference|1 hour, 52 minutes|COMEDY|Directed by Wayne Wang; written by Jeffrey Price and Peter S. Seaman, based on J.B. Priestley’s screenplay; photography by Geoffrey Simpson; starring Queen Latifah, LL Cool J, Timothy Hutton, Gérard Depardieu, Alicia Witt, Giancarlo Esposito, Michael Nouri |Opens today at area theaters.
