Last Holiday (2006 film)

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Last Holiday

Promotional poster for Last Holiday
Directed by Wayne Wang
Produced by Laurence Mark
Jack Rapke
Written by Jeffrey Price
Peter S. Seaman
Starring Queen Latifah
LL Cool J
Timothy Hutton
Giancarlo Esposito
Music by George Fenton
Cinematography Geoffrey Simpson
Editing by Deirdre Slevin
Distributed by Paramount Pictures
Release date(s) January 13, 2006
Language English
IMDb profile


Last Holiday is a film directed by Wayne Wang and starring Queen Latifah, LL Cool J, Timothy Hutton and Alicia Witt and was filmed on-site in New Orleans, Louisiana and at Barrandov Studios, in the Czech Republic. It was released in North America on January 13, 2006.

The 2006 film is a remake of the 1950 movie of the same name, starring Alec Guinness.

As of March 9, 2006, the film grossed a total of 38.4 million dollars. It was released on DVD on May 2, 2006.

Contents

[edit] Plot

Queen Latifah plays Georgia Byrd, an employee in the cookware department of the fictitious Kragen's Department Store in New Orleans. She is a timid, unassuming woman who leads a mechanical lifestyle, cooking wonderful meals for her neighbor and his grandfather, but never eating any herself. While flirting with a co-worker, Sean Williams (LL Cool J), she bumps her head on a cabinet door and is taken to the store's health center for a CAT scan.

There, company physician Dr. Gupta discovers that she has several brain tumors resulting from a rare neurological disorder - Lampingtons disease. Georgia's HMO plan will not cover the $340,000 operation to remove the tumors, and Georgia must come to terms with the fact that she has about three weeks to live. When she approaches Adamian, her self-absorbed yuppie supervisor, about the unfortunate turn of events in her life, he is dismissive and refuses to listen to her. In a sudden burst of self-assertion, Georgia breaks his cell phone and delivers a verbal tirade against him, finally announcing her resignation and leaving the store.

On her way out, Sean approaches her on the sidewalk and asks her to go to a Dallas Mavericks vs New Orleans Hornets basketball game with him in a few weeks. Realizing that she may not even be alive at that point, Georgia morosely declines his offer, but Sean tells her to keep the ticket anyway in case she changes her mind. At her home, as she flips through the scrapbook (labeled the Book of Possibilities) chronicling the hopes and dreams she had for herself, Georgia realizes that she has been deferring her dreams all her life. She bemoans never getting to meet Emeril Lagasse and decides that she has to make the most of her last few weeks of life. She liquidates her savings and Individual Retirement Account, and goes on her dream vacation to the Grandhotel Pupp in the spa city of Karlovy Vary, Czech Republic.

While en route to Prague, she betrays her generally quiet nature to voice her discontent about the airline's cramped, poor service and pays to be moved to a first class seat. On arriving in the Czech Republic, she continues throwing caution to the wind and hires a helicopter to fly into Karlovy Vary more quickly. The hotel's bellboy, Felipe, remarks that the last person to fly in by helicopter was Elton John.

Georgia makes extensive use of the hotel's spa, attempts snowboarding and base jumping off of a dam, enjoys succulent meals prepared by the world-renowned Chef Didier (Gérard Depardieu), occupies the presidential suite, and otherwise enjoys herself. She wins over the hotel's staff with her forthright manner and kindness, with the exception of the cantankerous floor valet Miss Gunther (Susan Kellerman). She meets Matthew Kragen (Timothy Hutton), the businessman who owns the store where she worked. Also at the resort are his assistant/mistress Ms. Burns, a pandering senator from Louisiana , and a prominent congressman. Kragen is skeptical about Georgia's unknown origins, and becomes paranoid that she has come to Karlovy Vary with the intent of sabotaging an important business deal he is trying to finalize while there.

Miss Gunther rifles through Georgia's room for information after Kragen bribes her to do so. In the desk, Gunther finds a letter Georgia has written, explaining that she is near death and providing instructions that she is to be cremated. Gunther is moved by the letter, and begins to realize that Georgia's newfound confidence and optimism have touched the guests and employees of the hotel as well.

Miss Gunther's next interaction with Georgia makes Georgia suspicious, given that Miss Gunther had always acted so salty but now seems to have performed a complete about-face. Miss Gunther blurts out "Please don't die!" and admits to Georgia that she had gone through her room and read the letter Georgia had written. Georgia is momentarily surprised, but is relieved that she now has someone to talk to about her prognosis. Miss Gunther apologizes for her intrusion and asks Georgia what she is doing here with "all these terrible people". She advises Georgia to return to New Orleans to spend her last days with people she loves. Georgia takes Gunther's advice and makes her way for the airport.

Back in New Orleans, Sean ponders what has happened to Georgia since she "up and quit her job" (as he puts it). He goes to Dr. Gupta, asking if he may have said something to upset her. Dr. Gupta says he's sorry, but patient confidentiality prevents him from discussing it. Sean does not accept this response and instead hoists the physician up in his arms (with no trouble at all) and intimidates Dr. Gupta into telling him the truth. Later, while attempting to knock on Georgia's door, Georgia's neighbor Darius recognizes Sean from the Possibilities book. Darius shows Sean the wedding images with the pasted photos of Georgia and Sean in it. While looking in the book, Sean discovers the most likely place that Georgia has gone - Karlovy Vary. It dawns on Sean what he has to do now. He decides to fly to the Czech Republic to find her. As Georgia is leaving the hotel and Sean is on his way to it, an avalanche on a mountain road leaves both of them unable to continue their journeys.

Georgia goes back to the hotel, but Sean starts across the snow. At a New Year's Eve party that evening, Kragen, having found out about Georgia, exposes her identity as a saleswoman in one of his stores. Georgia explains her situation and, rather than reject her - as Kragen hopes his colleagues will - they sympathize with her and are disgusted by Kragen's insensitivity. One by one they leave the table, until Kragen is left sitting by himself. Having embarrassed himself and been rejected by Ms. Burns, Kragen goes up to the top floor of the hotel and sits on the ledge contemplating suicide. Georgia comes up to the ledge to try to persuade him to come down, and offers the advice that if he were nicer to people and less driven and greedy, he would be a happier person.

At that moment, Sean arrives at the hotel and calls up to her from the sidewalk below, immediately running inside to join her on the ledge. In the lobby, Gunther comes across a fax that had come earlier that day but fell to the floor, unnoticed . It is from Dr. Gupta, who has found out that Georgia was misdiagnosed; the outdated CAT scanner the corporate clinic bought in a cost-cutting attempt was broken, generating a pattern on the film that could be misinterpreted as a tumor. Gunther rushes up to the ledge and tells Georgia that she is not dying after all.

Georgia and Sean return to New Orleans to get married. The end of the film shows Georgia at her new restaurant's kitchen, cooking with Chef Didier. A steady stream of customers file in as she and Sean greet them. One of these customers is, to Georgia's delight, Emeril Lagasse.

[edit] Main cast

[edit] Food Network involvement

The large amounts of gourmet cuisine seen throughout the film was prepared by chefs from the Food Network. The recipes of the meals shown in the film were available on the Food Network website including Lobster Salad in Potato Leek Nests, Duck Hash on Toasted Baguette, Spiced Lamb Shanks with Blood Orange Relish, Roasted Quail with Brioche and Chorizo Stuffing, Risotto Barolo with Roasted Vegetables, Bananas Foster, and Poulet Tchoupitoulas.

In the scene where Georgia makes Poulet Tchoupitoulous, footage from the Emeril Live episode "Chicken Four Ways" is seen on her TV. As part of the film's promotion, Queen Latifah appeared as a guest on Lagasse's show, where he makes a variation of Poulet Tchoupitoulas substituting shrimp for the chicken.

[edit] External links

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Last_Holiday_(2006_film)"
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