Here we have a lesson in star power. Take a premise that was already tired the first time the movie was made (in 1950, with Alec Guinness), an odd assortment of B-list movie stars (Timothy Hutton, Alicia Witt, LL Cool J, Giancarlo Esposito, and a barely comprehensible Gerard Depardieu), and writing and directing that are on the pedestrian side, and you should wind up with a disastrous clunker of a movie.
But despite all those flaws, Last Holiday is a pleasant way to pass a couple of hours, and that's entirely due to Queen Latifah in the starring role.
Latifah plays Georgia Byrd, a shy department-store clerk who is told -- incorrectly, of course -- that she has but three weeks to live, and decides to blow her savings on her fantasy vacation. Off to the Czech Republic Georgia goes, to the Grandhotel Pupp (pronounced "poop," which generates too many punchlines), where she's put up in the Presidential Suite. Determined to enjoy her last days, she finds in herself a love for life that she never knew was there, and charms all of the hotel's guests and staff in the process.
Latifah brings life to scenes we've seen dozens of times before. There's a standard montage, for instance, in which Georgia goes to a high-end fashion store and tries on an array of glamorous outfits, and Latifah makes it feel fresh; Georgia's joy and amusement at seeing herself in these clothes -- and her laughter at the silliness of the more outlandish outfits -- give the scene more energy than you'd ever expect from such an old chestnut.
Queen Latifah is so warm and likable in this movie that she actually makes us care how this creaky plot turns out, which is a nearly miraculous trick. Any decent actor can make a good script work; it takes real talent to make crap entertaining.
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