Last Holiday

When shy, single, calorie-counting New Orleans department store assistant Georgia Bird (Queen Latifah) gets the shock news that a rare brain disease leaves her with only weeks to live, she does what anyone would do: she cashes in her savings and heads off solo to a luxury hotel in Karlovy Vary. A slightly odd set-up indeed (which made more sense in the JB Priestley-scripted 1950 British original with Alec Guinness), but it allows Latifah to swing pleasingly into no-more-bullshit mode and tell her scheming retail magnate former employer and palm-greasing local senator exactly what she thinks of them. Yes, they just happen to be staying at the Grand Hotel Pupp too. Funny that.

By rights, this combination of coincidence and heaped-on sentiment should be a truly dreadful movie, but director Wayne Wang’s steady hand makes the underlying carpe diem theme essentially quite touching, while cherishable Latifah is simply a walking magnet for the audience’s goodwill. It’s not exactly distinguished, but pleasantly warm-hearted, and the sort of thing you might enjoy on afternoon TV when laid up with the flu.