Cast overview, first billed only: | |||
Queen Latifah | ... | Georgia Byrd | |
LL Cool J | ... | Sean Matthews | |
Timothy Hutton | ... | Matthew Kragen | |
Giancarlo Esposito | ... | Senator Dillings | |
Alicia Witt | ... | Ms. Burns | |
Gérard Depardieu | ... | Chef Didier | |
Jane Adams | ... | Rochelle | |
Michel Estime | ... | Marlon (as Mike Estime) | |
Susan Kellermann | ... | Gunther | |
Jascha Washington | ... | Darius | |
Matt Ross | ... | Adamian | |
Ranjit Chowdhry | ... | Dr. Gupta | |
Michael Nouri | ... | Congressman Stewart | |
Jaqueline Fleming | ... | Tanya | |
Kendall Mosby | ... | Anton |
In morte veritas. Georgia Byrd clerks at a New Orleans department store. She defers pleasure: cooks gourmet meals, eats Lean Cuisine; likes a co-worker in silence; has savings, but hasn't left Louisiana. All that changes when a CT Scan discloses she has three weeks to live. She cashes her savings and heads to Grandhotel Pupp in the Czech Republic, where Chef Didier presides. She checks into the Presidential Suite, orders everything on the menu, snowboards, and comes to the attention of the chef and the hotel's powerful American guests: a Congressman, a Senator, a retail magnate, and his mistress. She has nothing to lose, so she tells them what she thinks. Will the truth set them free? Written by <jhailey@hotmail.com>
Currently, we have our fair share of pointless actions films (absent of any plot and decent script) or films that are trying to take themselves too seriously or films that are too dark and downbeat or films which try to be funny but are not so it was a pleasure to go with my family recently to see Last Holiday.
Queen Latifah comfortably heads a cast who delivered solid, believable performances across the board (and some new faces to me). OK, the story was a bit contrived and some sequences were a bit far fetched (the snow board ride for instance) but it was a great deal of fun.
The story, which looked at people's aspirations and dreams and the need to take every day as it comes, to enjoy life to the full (as we don't know what is round the corner) was played out with great passion and skill. Latifah's comedy acting (loved the raised eyebrow and sideways glances) was relaxed and easily won over the sympathy of the audience. Great, also, to see Gerard Depardieu again as I haven't seen him for a while.
Refreshingly set in snowy Prague, good Direction and lovely Cinematography. I recommend that you see it.