Last Holiday

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— Overview
— Cast and Crew
— Photo Pages

It’s always interesting to imagine what you would do if you only had three weeks to live. Sometimes I do this and my imagination goes in a variety of different directions, most of which are dependent on my mood. I’ve gone from picturing myself jumping into life with both feet to ruminating on my misfortune to taking masochistic pleasure in whether anyone would miss me or not. In the movie Last Holiday, Georgia Byrd (Queen Latifa) is told she has approximately three weeks to live. The whole film is a lot of fun, but at the same time it created in me a desire to improve my life and the lives of those around me.

Georgia is a shy, God-fearing woman with a lowly job as a cutlery salesperson at a huge department store in New Orleans (Kragen’s). As the result of a work accident, she has to visit the company infirmary to have the bump on her head examined. It just so happens that the cheapskate company she works for has an unnecessary medical tool: a “used� CAT scan machine. Why a company as cheap as Kragen’s would bother even owning a scanner made no sense to me, even a used one. But we had to have a way to diagnose a grave disease quickly. (I didn’t notice any medical consultants in the credits).

As Georgia comes to grips with her misfortune, the life she didn’t live begins to blossom in her. (And this is where the movie gets good and stays there.) She takes her scrapbook entitled “POSSIBILITIES� and decides to make some of her dreams come true. She cashes her savings and bonds and plans a vacation of a lifetime in what to her is a dreamland: Karlovy Vary in Prague, Czech Republic. Her reservations are at the opulent and very expensive Grand Hotel Pupp (proudly pronounced “poop�), where beautiful people hang out and the “ceiling can make you cry.� Due to her ostentatious and daring behavior, Georgia attracts the attention of a small group of these “beautiful� people—people with deep pockets and shallow characters—that feel they must get to know this previously unknown “Kudjillionaire.� As luck would have it, these rich folks are also from New Orleans and are listed in the downward spiraling subphylum: Congressman, Senator, Boss, and Boss’s girlfriend (as in “not-wife-we-are-here-on-business-bimbo�). Oops. Not the people our still-God-fearing heroine wants to chill with.

I need to take a break here and introduce these flawlessly played characters. At the top of the subphylum we have our Congressman Stewart (Michael Nouri); then Senator Dillings (Giancarlo Esposito); Boss, a.k.a. Mr. Kragen (Timothy Hutton); and finally girlfriend, Ms. Burns (Alicia Witt). The cast itself embodies the term “chemistry.�

Other top-flight performances include Sean Matthews (LL Cool J: I’ve made a personal vow to go to any movie he is in from now on; he is terrific!) as well as the equally super, lovable and affable Gerard DePardieu (Chef Didier, Georgia’s kindred spirit). One of my favorite exchanges in the movie is between the Chef and Georgia:

Chef Didier: You and I know the meaning of life.
Georgia: What’s that?
Chef: Butter.

Food plays a huge role in this film. The Food Network was responsible for many of the sets. Both Mssrs. Depardieu and Director Wayne Wang are food aficionados, and this film is lavish with culinary pleasures, enhancing Georgia’s secret desire to be a chef in her own restaurant someday.

This film uses many pleasures we take for granted and moves them to the forefront of consciousness: food, music, art, architecture, nature—virtually all the things that we take for granted until we are in the position in which Georgia finds herself. Hopefully though, we start “smelling the flowers� now, not when it is too late.

Wang uses this backdrop of life’s joys to make a profound point. He shoots the film in front of these wallpaper themes to drive his message home. I walked away having heard a distinct message: “Slow your life down. Notice and engage other people. Enjoy the simple things of life before they are gone!� I’ve never seen a movie with such an important message conveyed with such joy and meaning. The movie is fun, but I walked away thinking about my own life choices.

Wang also made another film I enjoyed, Because of Winn-Dixie, where he explored important themes from the perspective of a 10-year-old girl. He has a way of mixing whimsy with gravity that evokes some prolonged soul searching I don’t get from many movies. In Last Holiday, Wang has given us a chance to really examine our hearts, our lives and our purpose in life in a non-threatening and life-affirming fashion.

Continue:
— Overview
— Cast and Crew
— Photo Pages