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Last Holiday

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Last Holiday is a film directed by Wayne Wang and starring Queen Latifah, filmed at Barrandov Studios. It was released in North America on January 13, 2006.

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

As of February 5, 2006, the film grossed a total of 36.3 million dollars. It was released on DVD on May 2, 2006.

Contents

Plot

[Spoiler warningSpoiler warning]: Plot and/or ending details follow.
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 Matthews (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. Gutpa discovers that she has several brain tumors resulting from a rare neurological disorder. 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 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 chronicling the hopes and dreams she had always had for herself, Georgia realizes that she has been deferring her dreams all her life and decides to make the most of her last few weeks of life. She liquidates her savings and IRA, 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 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 bell-boys note that the last person to fly in by helicopter was Elton John. There she 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, occupies the presidential suite, and otherwise enjoys herself. She meets Matthew Kragen (Timothy Hutton), the businessman who owns the store she worked at. Also at the resort are his assistant-slash-mistress Miss Burnes, a pandering Louisiana Senator, 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, Georgia's disagreeable valet, rifles through Georgia's personal effects after Kragen bribes her to do so. In the desk in her hotel room, Gunther finds a letter Georgia has written to her sister, explaining that she is near death and providing instructions for her burial. 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. She confronts Georgia and advises her to return to New Orleans to spend her last days with the people she loves. Georgia takes Gunther's advise and leaves for the airport. Back in New Orleans, Georgia's neighbor Darius divulges her secret designs on Sean to him, and he decides to fly to the Czech Republic to profess his love to 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 Kragen is left sitting by himself. Having embarrassed himself and been rejected by Miss Burnes, 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 pursuade him to come down, and offers the advice that if he were nicer to people and less driven and acquisitive, 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 been carelessly left on the floor. It is from Dr. Gupta, who has found out that Georgia was misdiagnosed; the ancient CAT scanner the corporate clinic bought in a cost-cutting attempt was broken and generated 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 and soonafter she opens her own restaurant.

Main cast

Trivia

External links

 

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