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Queen Latifah makes 'Last Holiday' a crowd-pleaser

By ELEANOR RINGEL GILLESPIE
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

So, you're remaking a 1950 film that starred Alec Guinness as a man who, told he only has a short time to live, decides to spend his last weeks living life to its fullest.

And you would cast ... Ewan McGregor (the Obi-Wan connection)? Tom Hanks? Rob Schneider? (Kidding about that last one.)

Paramount Pictures

'Last Holiday'

B+

The verdict: Thanks to Queen Latifah, this sometimes cheesy crowd-pleaser is worth giving a chance.

Director: Wayne Wang
Starring: Queen Latifah, Alicia Witt, LL Cool J , Giancarlo Esposito, Gerard Depardieu
Run time: 112 minutes
Release date: Jan. 13, 2005
Rating: PG-13 for some sexual references.
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How about Queen Latifah?

She's the unexpected and hugely effective star of "Last Holiday," a pleasant trifle made far better than it should be by her effortless charm and expansive spirit.

Latifah plays Georgia Byrd, a shy cookware sales clerk at a department store in pre-Katrina New Orleans. Her secret crush, Sean (LL Cool J), works there, too, but she can barely bring herself to talk to him. Instead, she spends her evenings cooking along with Emeril Lagasse — though when it's time to eat, she sticks a Lean Cuisine in the microwave, rejecting rich food the way she rejects a richer life.

But after a bump on the head and an ominous CAT scan, Georgia gathers her life savings, intending to blow it all on a blowout vacation at a luxurious European ski resort.

There, her bad prognosis and her temporary wealth do for her what Richard Gere did for Julia Roberts in "Pretty Woman." Georgia goes on a shopping spree at a swank boutique, settles into the Presidential Suite and orders all 10 specials for dinner — a move that impresses the hotel's famous (and famously temperamental) chef (an adorable Gerard Depardieu).

The other guests think her carefree, flamboyant behavior means she's a woman of considerable means. They include the sour, self-satisfied owner of her department store (Timothy Hutton), who's there in an only-in-the-movies coincidence; his mistreated, much younger mistress (Alicia Witt); and a senator (Giancarlo Esposito) who was supposed to be speaking at Georgia's church, not skiing in the Alps on Hutton's dime.

Turns out, she is a woman of considerable means — as she finally discovers about herself. But not in the way they thought.

"Last Holiday" often overstates its live-for-the-moment case; the uber-cutesy soundtrack is a constant annoyance; and an unfunny snowboard-and-ski gag goes on far too long.

Still, director Wayne Wang ("The Joy Luck Club") lets his star work her magic and the eclectic supporting cast (Depardieu, Hutton, Esposito and Cool J in the same movie?) plays right along with her.

Especially Depardieu. The two have such great chemistry you wish they'd make a sequel together. They could call it "Alive and Cooking."