Last Holiday

I’m not much of a fan of the romantic comedy. I’m not even much of a fan of movies that have but a mere whiff of romantic comedy about them, regardless of genre label. Even so, I’ll be darned if I can keep myself from watching them when I can do so for free. Maybe I’m always looking for the perfect one to pop up, or I’m into self punishment, or I just need an infusion of good old fashioned girly make-believe to lighten up my usual depressing (but beloved) movie fare. Whatever the reason, I find myself recording them from movie channels and watching them after everyone else goes to bed. It’s like a secret addiction. And every once in a while, I find myself smiling when one ends – not out of joy that it’s finally over, but because I really, truly enjoyed it. Such is the improbable case with Last Holiday.

Now I’m not going to claim that Last Holiday has somehow turned the film world on its ear. Or that it’s the single shining example of what a romantic comedy should be. It doesn’t and it isn’t. But it has something…

Queen Latifah stars as Georgia, a young woman who spends her entire life buttoned up. Literally in her clothing and figuratively in her outward approach to life. She works at a department store where the employees are treated like chattel and the little bits of compassion she tries to insert into that life are soundly rebuffed by the management.

Of course, her love life suffers for her lack of spontaneity. She has feelings for a co-worker, but could never bring herself to act upon them. Pity that he, too, lives a buttoned up life in their safe and sterile world.

Georgia does have one passion – cooking. She prepares meals with the kind of love and attention that only someone who truly loves food and the pleasure it can bring can ever achieve. Unfortunately, she never eats them. She feeds them to the child next door while she remains tightly in her controlled world with her Lean Cuisine.

Finally, Georgia receives some news that makes her break. It’s time to live her dream, and off she flies to a distant land where her idol, a master chef, resides and works. She’s entered the realm of the rich and powerful and she’s determined to enjoy every last minute. And don’t think we’ve forgotten about that cutie-pie co-worker – he’s determined to be a part of this story as well.

Well that just sounds sappy and hokey and lots of other unflattering adjectives. So why did I like Last Holiday? What makes it different from all the other rom/coms and their genre spawn? It isn’t just that we don’t get the boy-meets-girl, etc. plot line; lots of these films stray from that formula, with the rom taking a back seat to the com and the com taking on a little drama and fantasy. It isn’t that we learn something about life that’s earth shattering and unusual. So what caught me?

Honestly, I think there’s a sweetness to Georgia that is immensely appealing. We can all relate to her in some way. Whether it’s denying ourselves something we love in order to fit into a culture we only read about or putting off our real dreams out of fear and the solidity of routine, we’ve all been there. So there’s a vicarious joy in seeing Georgia break her own rules, break some of society’s rules and immerse herself in things that she has admired so long from afar. Even though her travels have a melancholy undercurrent, she makes the most of this adventure and we love her for it. All of the games and politics and power plays going on around her are of no significance, and in that she is unique, drawing people to her with her unbridled quest for sheer experience.

What makes the character and the admittedly corny premise truly hum is Queen Latifah. Georgia is so hard on herself at the beginning of the film, and Queen Latifah sells it completely. By the time she takes off on her adventure, we already like her. We want to see what she’s going to do with this time, and we want it to be absolutely grand. Queen Latifah does not go from bland to fabulous in a heartbeat; this isn’t an ugly duckling story. Rather she lets this character unfold right in front of us, enjoying the smallest details of her experiences, being her true self rather than the one she has shown the world for so long. It’s delightful to watch an actress have fun with a character while making the most of the more clichéd bits of drama thrown in to….I don’t know – make us weep? Her sadness, her anger, her life lessons shared with others, yeah, they’re corny as hell. But because we like Georgia, we can live with that.

The rest of the cast is adequate, if not stellar. They all circle in Queen Latifah’s glow, which isn’t a bad thing. Gerard Depardieu has fun as the master chef, gesticulating and over-emoting and generally being larger than life. Timothy Hutton as the requisite corporate bad guy is also a hoot, all paranoid and power hungry, but insecure and adolescent when it counts. Hutton does both smarmy and pathetic with equal glee. LL Cool J doesn’t get a whole lot of screen time, but he’s pretty adorable playing the awkward love interest. Some of the scenery is glorious as Georgia travels, with snow capped peaks and precipitous plunges. The stark contrast between her original life – all filled with dull, washed out colors – and her grand holiday – filled with the crisp, vibrant colors of cold (and cold hard cash) – is cute. It’s an obvious visual gimmick, but it works. Plus, the food looks fabulous.

Director Wayne Wang combines a by-the-numbers story and an actress with all the right skills to pull it off without making us want to vomit. And that’s what it takes to make a corny, weepy girly film that works. Last Holiday breaks no new ground, teaches us nothing that we don’t already know and never strays from a typical rom/com-esque path. Yet these filmmakers are wise enough to embody their main character in an actress who can make us care and make us laugh and make us forgive the movie its lack of any real originality. I thoroughly enjoyed every sappy minute of Last Holiday. I highly recommend it for any true fan of the romantic comedy and similar genres, and even for those closet addicts out there like me with a love/hate relationship with anything that smells vaguely of eau de chick flick. Last Holiday is one that works.