Movie Review: Queen Latifah’s Last Holiday

I just watched Last Holiday starring Queen Latifah last night. First, let me say, I love Queen Latifah, she’s funny, bold and beautiful. I was expecting a more “in your face” type of comedy, this movie however was more subdued but still funny. It started off a little slow and I was wondering if it really was a comedy. Last Holiday falls more into the romantic side rather than the comedy side of “romantic comedy”.

L.L. Cool J co-stars in Last Holiday as Queen Latifah’s love interest. He pulled off his role as a sexy but immediately likeable character. Queen Latifah plays Georgia Bryd who lives a quiet, frugal life but yearns for more. She clips out magazine photos and stores them in her “book of possibilities”. The book also has photos she has doctored of her and her “possible” boyfriend, L.L. Cool J’s Sean Matthews.

When Georgia finds out she has just three weeks to live, she pulls out her book of possibilities, cashes out her retirement fund and immediately books her dream vacation in Europe at a posh hotel and resort. Dignitaries staying at the resort include a congressman and a senator from her home state of Louisiana along with the greedy owner of the department store she works for, Mr. Matthew Kragen played by Timothy Hutton.

Because Georgia believes she will die in the next few weeks, she spares no expense and indulges on her every whim from spa treatments, to choosing every dish on the menu to base jumping. In doing so, her joy of life endears her to the hotel staff and the dignitaries alike. Everyone wonders just who this rich woman with the fabulous attitude is. Her only enemies appear to be the womanizing Matthew Kragen and the snoopy room valet, Gunther played by Susan Kellerman.

Georgia lives her final days as if she were dying and in the process discovers herself. No more wish lists for her, she sees what she wants and grasps it. Though she wants Sean, she is too generous to dump on him and leaves for Europe without telling him. Sean finds that life without her, isn’t really life and he tries to track her down. In classic Hollywood style, just as he’s traveling to Europe to find her, Georgia decides she needs to spend her final days at home surrounded by those she loves. Will their paths cross or will they miss a final chance at love? I’m not telling.

Even though I’m not telling, the movie is pretty predictable but charming and fun to watch. The only part that I didn’t care for or really get was the boy at her home in the beginning. I thought he was her son but apparently he must be a nephew or a neighbor based on the fact that she left him behind and he was never on her mind. The beginning was kind of slow so I probably wasn’t paying enough attention at that point. So I was a little bothered that in her dying days she left her son behind. I figured it out though, the boy wasn’t her son.

Queen Latifah is a pure delight and Last Holiday makes for a good movie. Cuddle up with your DVD player, your sweetheart and a box of chocolates or a bowl of popcorn drenched in butter.