Last Holiday (2006/Paramount Blu-ray)
Picture:
B Sound: B Extras: C Film: C
In one of
the more interesting twists in Queen Latifah’s acting career, some of her
lesser-seen, but better comedy work has links to England. The underrated Mad Money (reviewed elsewhere on this site) was based on a robbery
case there and Wayne Wang’s Last Holiday
(2006) is a remake of a 1950 comedy with Sir Alec Guinness (yes, Obi Wan Kenobi
himself) as the lead character who finds out a fatal illness will soon end life
as they know it. Wang (Chan Is Missing) goes for a broad
commercial film here, but it was not bad and also not a big hit. Still, it has its moments and is worth a look.
Latifah’s
Georgia Byrd works at an office and is not happy with her life, but just when
things cannot get worse, she gets the information that she has a fatal
illness. She then quits her job, tells
everyone off, cashes in everything she has and goes on a vacation in Europe
focusing on her love of cooking and seeing what the good life could be
like. She is falling for a co-worker
(L.L. Cool J in a surprisingly good performance) she decides to leave behind
because starting a relationship when she is going to die is too much for her to
handle emotionally. Then she meets good
people and bad (Timothy Hutton, Giancarlo Esposito, Alicia Witt, Michael Nouri)
while there and also meets the chef of her dreams (Gérard Depardieu, a real
surprise here in one of his best comic performances) while enjoying things like
skiing and their upscale spa services. There
are also some fun cameos we will not ruin.
Out in
time on Blu-ray for the 2008 holiday, you could do much worse and if the
premise seems appealing and you missed this, you should give this one a chance
as long as you don’t expect a classic.
The 1080p
2.35 X 1 digital High Definition image was shot in Super 35mm by George Fenton
(Groundhog Day, White Palace, The Fisher
King, The History Boys) and he
makes this look top rate and expensive throughout, which makes the European
locations look as rich as they should.
Unfortunately, the transfer here is a little grainier than it looked
originally and that can take away from some of the sheen intended, but has its
moments. The Dolby TrueHD 5.1 mix is sometimes
lively, but this is usually dialogue and joke-based, so only expect so much
sonically. Extras include two deleted
scenes, the original theatrical trailer in HD, two deleted scenes, and three
featurettes: Parking Light, Last Look and 23 Years In The Making.
- Nicholas Sheffo
