LAST HOLIDAY
US, 2006, 112 minutes, Colour.
Queen Latifah, L.L. Cool J, Timothy Hutton, Giancarlo Esposito, Alicia Witt, Gerard Depardieu, Jane Adams, Susan Kellerman, Michael Nouri.
Directed by Wayne Wang.
Queen Latifah as Alec Guinness? Now that’s a stretch of the imagination (or a trick question for Trivial Pursuit). The answer is that Wayne Wang’s version of Last Holiday is a US adaptation and remake of an Alec Guinness film of 1950. Novelist J.B.Priestly wrote the screenplay at the time of the making of the film of his classic play, An Inspector Calls.
The plot outline is much the same, except for the very end.
Wayne Wang made a number of small budget films in the 1980s, Dim Sum and Eat a Bowl of Tea. He moved into the major league with The Joy Luck Club. Since 2000, he has been making very American romantic comedies with sentiment: Anywhere But Here, Maid in Manhattan, Because of Winn Dixie. Last Holiday is one of these.
Imagine Queen Latifah as a quiet, somewhat fearful and repressed sales representative in a large department store. We don’t have to make such an effort for this, although that is how the film opens. When she is diagnosed as terminal, she decides to break out and to branch out and live her last holiday to the full. She goes to Karlovy Vary in the Czech Republic, to the top hotel, to meet a chef she admires (who turns out to be Gerard Depardieu looking genially dishevelled, despite the fact that the credits say he had a costume asstant and a hair stylist to make it look as if he had just got out of bed).
She lives it up but she is an innately kind person who speaks her mind clearly and changes the lives and attitudes of all the people she meets, staff and millionaires alike. The most dastardly of these is Timothy Hutton, holidaying with his mistress and trying to bribe politicians to pass legislation to benefit his company. LL Cool J is the ardent admirer of Queen Latifah, but also reticent and low-key.
What happens when you have only a few weeks to live? The answer here is that you live the capitalist dream, you live it up in luxury, do all the things you didn’t know you wanted to. But, be nice.
1.A Queen Latifah comedy? Sentiment and humour?
2.The original film? Alec Guinness? The screenplay by J.B. Priestley? The adaptation to the United States, the update?
3.The New Orleans settings, George’s home, the department store, the transition to Czech Republic, Carlo Vivari? The hotel? The mountain scenery and the snow? The action sequences? The high life, costumes and décor, the emphasis on food and the visualising of banquets? The musical score?
4.The image of Queen Latifah, going against type, her being poor and quiet, the transition and the high life in the Czech Republic.
5.The central idea: the woman in poverty, prim, diligent, her illness, the diagnosis, the decision for the holiday, the transformation, feeling free? The mistake? Her future? Credible? The treatment?
6.Georgia in herself, her age, singing in church, her life, her feeling weak and ill, the conversations with her friend in the store, her reserved attitudes? At home, the meal, the boy, her book of Possibilities? Her friendship with Sean, not able to talk to him, dreaming that she might marry him? At the shop, her work, the boss and his hard attitudes? Her buying the grill, her having bought one earlier? The discussions with Sean, her collapse? The tests, the doctor, the diagnosis? The time left? Her facing this future?
7.Her decision, her going to the boss, resigning? Her interest in travel, Carlo Vivari, her interest in food? The television cook and her cooking the meals herself, photographing them? The DVDs of Matthew Kragen and the materialistic and businesslike side of the ethos of the shop? The boss and the books that he read, his aping Matthew Kragen?
8.Georgia and her plane ride, wanting more space, going into first class, enjoying the luxury? The helicopter ride to the hotel? The discussions about the room, getting the presidential suite? The reaction of the staff? Her clothes, her being outfitted? The meals, taking all courses and enjoying them? Meeting the chef Didier, friendship, conversations? Her encounter with the senator, reprimanding him about his not going to see his constituents? Kragen and his girlfriend? In the spa, Frau Gunther as a spy, severe attitudes? The masseuse and her friendliness? The various activities, the training, tobogganing – and the rivalry with Kragen? Skiing? The high dive – and Kragen pulling out?
9.The senator, attracted to her, his life, constituents, busy in Washington, money and deals, his lies, charm? Her reforming him?
10.Kragen and his greed, Miss Burns, his treatment of her? Separation from his wife? His wanting the chef to attend to him? Congressman Stewart and his wife? The senator? His not going on the jump, trying to find out about Georgia, bribing Gunther? The clash with his girlfriend? Getting desperate, sitting on the ledge, suicidal, Georgia helping him and his coming down?
11.Miss Burns, her relationship with Kragen, her ambitions, working in the department, the company? Her hopes, her rudeness to the masseuse, Georgia taking her aside, talking frankly to her, the transformation, her having the strength to stand up to Kragen?
12.Congressman Stewart, his wife, their interest in Georgia, friendship? Spurning of Kragen?
13.Sean, in the store, finding out the truth about Georgia, the doctor, the boy, going to Carlo Vivari, the snow blocking the road, trekking over the mountains? Meeting her, happy times together?
14.The doctor, discovering the mistaken machine, faxing the message?
15.Gunther, her severity, the caricature German, Kragen giving her the bribe? Reading the fax, changing, her friendship with Georgia?
16.Gerard Depardieu as Chef Didier, the range of food, going to the market, with Georgia, the feast?
17.The postscript to the film – Georgia and Sean opening the restaurant – and everybody turning up for the celebration?
18.The final information, tongue-in-cheek, of what happened to everyone afterwards?
