Friday, December 12, 2008

Feel Good Holiday Movie: Last Holiday

Okay, so maybe a movie starring Queen Latifah and LL Cool J about a woman with three weeks left to live might not be everybody's cup of tea, but I have always found Queen Latifah to have an extremely pleasing on-screen presence ("It's clear that Queen Latifah is a proper, old school movie star - the camera loves her and her constantly upbeat screen persona is extremely likeable") and this movie, if it sounds remotely like your kind of thing, is a sweet-natured feel-good holiday movie. (I have not seen the original, starring out favorite, Sir Alec Guinness.)

Queen Latifah's character, Georgia Byrd, is a wallflower department store clerk who is incapable of carpe diem'ing her life; she cooks gourmet dinners that she does not eat, and she has a crush on a co-worker (LL Cool J) that, despite his reception, she cannot act on (though she keeps using her store discount to buy bbq grills from his department.) When she finds out she has only weeks to live and that her health care will not cover the operation, she pulls all her money from the bank and embarks on her dream vacation to a luxury hotel where her favorite chef, played by Gerard Depardieu, cooks. It's not the most unpredictable plot ever, and as you can expect, Queen Latifah teaches people lessons (like how real people order food) and is very charming, but if what you need is some light holiday fare for a slow afternoon, this is perfect.

Last Holiday (in parts, Youtube):

1 comment:

ken said...

hey b -
I'm sorry for the delay in replying to your comments, but things have been more than normally hectic the past couple of weeks...
I LOVE this movie - it's just right for a lazy holiday afternoon...
And we've lost Bettie Page, it seems that our icons are falling faster and faster...
I'm glad you like the new layout at Romantic and Square, it was time for a renovation - I just wish I could've picked the time to do it...
The header image is from an ad done by Coby Whhitmore - he illustrated ads and features for the New Yorker and the Sat. Eve. Post...he's one of my favorite illustrators, he ran in the same circles as Paul Newman and Steve McQueen - I read somewhere that he said that his primary interests were "racing cars, illustrating, and smart clothes on beautiful women"...
And finally, let Caitlin know that I dug through a box in our attic and found my copy of the Anastasia OST - http://www.divshare.com/
download/6067443-517
hope y'all have a great weekend!
ken

 

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