LAST HOLIDAY — ** — Queen Latifah, LL Cool J, Timothy Hutton; rated PG13 (vulgarity, profanity, slapstick violence, nude artwork).
Queen Latifah's film career has been marked by a series of big, brassy, bold performances, which is one of the reasons "Last Holiday" proves to be such a frustrating experience. You keep expecting her to bust out of this bloated, nearly two-hour comedy, which should have been kept to 80 or 90 minutes (as was the 1950 version of this story).
Unfortunately, Latifah's performance is curiously muted, even restrained, and several of the film's scenes keep going long after they should have come to a halt. Some judicious editing could have made the film less sluggish and would have improved it greatly.
"Last Holiday" is a loose remake of an Alec Guinness comedy. In this version, Latifah stars as Georgia Byrd, a Louisiana department-store employee who's unwilling to take chances, afraid to tell her seemingly more assured co-worker Sean Matthews (LL Cool J) that she has a huge crush on him.
When Georgia receives an accidental bump on the noggin at work, she receives some distressing news — she's been diagnosed with a terminal and inoperable disease. So she quits her job, cashes in her stocks and savings, and heads to Eastern Europe to experience life before her own comes to an early end.
As luck would have it, Georgia winds up staying in the same luxury resort as Matthew Kragen (Timothy Hutton), the profit-minded CEO of the store chain she used to work for, who immediately butts heads with our now-carefree heroine. In the meantime, Sean has mustered up the courage to tell Georgia that he has a crush on her — even though it may be too late.
It's ironic that Wayne Wang's directing choices mirror his main character here, that he plays things so safe. Wang and screenwriters Jeffrey Price and Peter S. Seaman ("Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas") even refuse to allow Hutton's greedy character to be too villainous, giving him a bit of redemption at the end.
And it's a little unnerving to see Latifah soft-sell the best parts of her personality, though she does have chemistry with LL Cool J. Also, Gerard Depardieu gets a few chuckles in a supporting role as a world-renowned chef working at the resort, as does Alicia Witt, who plays Kragen's assistant and mistress.
"Last Holiday" is rated PG13 for some vulgar humor and references (including some innuendo and other sexually suggestive references), scattered use of strong profanity, some comic violence (mostly pratfalls), and glimpses of nude artwork. Running time: 112 minutes.
E-mail: jeff@desnews.com