Last Holiday

A comedy set partly in New Orleans and partly in Europe. Georgia works behind a counter in a department store, selling cookware. She cooks well, keeps a scrapbook of the life she would like, and says nothing to the man she likes at work. A scan is taken after a knock on the head. The doctor tells her she has weeks to live. She cashes everything in and goes to a grand hotel in Central Europe, the one from her scrapbook, where a chef she admires cooks. From there the film is about how she behaves. Believing she has nothing to lose, she says exactly what she thinks, orders the whole menu, snowboards badly, and gambles. The other guests take her for someone important. A senator, a congressman and the owner of the store she works in are all there, and none of them recognise a shop assistant. What the narrative is interested in is not death but permission: the film says a person can live like this without a diagnosis, and it says it lightly. The ending is not hidden by the film, which telegraphs it early, so the pleasure is in the manner and not the surprise. The source is a British film from 1950 with Alec Guinness, written by J. B. Priestley. This is a remake, moved to another country and another kind of star. Queen Latifah plays Georgia. LL Cool J, Timothy Hutton, Alicia Witt and Gérard Depardieu are in the cast. Wayne Wang directed. The hotel scenes were shot at the Grandhotel Pupp in Karlovy Vary. Who it is for: anyone who wants a warm, well-mannered comedy with a strong lead. Who it is not for: anyone who wants surprise; the plot goes exactly where you expect from the first ten minutes.