Review of Last Holiday (2006) by Sarah E — 31 Jan 2011

Believe me, no one is more surprised that I liked this movie than me. Chick flicks and I have a terrible relationship at best. They find me too jaded and critical; I find them insipid and frustrating. For the love of HSD, just speak the hell up! Nearly every problem could be solved if even one of the characters was the least big frigging honest.

Thankfully, The Last Holiday doesn't suffer from communication problems, and the ones that its main character Georgia does suffer from make a whole lot of sense, at least the way Queen Latifah plays her. Here's a woman whose personality comes with its own gravitational pull, and I don't mind saying that I was completely taken by her. She had me at her opening scene, so much so that the set-up of the movie didn't bother me, especially when they started playing with the typical tropes of a chick flick. Georgia is misdiagnosed with a terminal illness in the first fifteen minutes, and rather than live out the rest of her supposedly short life as a member of the proletariat, she promptly spends everything she has on a trip to the mountains and on lavish meals by her favourite chef.

Aside for Latifah, who I love in this movie, the supporting characters play a big part in my adoration as well. Unlike most Chick Flicks where the supporting cast is populated by some of the meanest, shallow, and vindictive characters ever performed, most of which have no other purpose being mean than to simply be mean, The Last Holiday is populated by people who are genuinely well-meaning and kind. Some of them have their personality defects, but deep-down, they are all capable of compassion. This saves the movie from the usual horrors of human cruelty and saves me from tearing someone limb from limb. It makes The Last Holiday one of my favourite romantic comedies.