Because her time is so short, Georgia throws caution to the winds for the first time in her life. She upgrades to first class on the plane, takes the presidential suite at the hotel, gets a makeover and serious wardrobe upgrade, learns to snowboard … she grabs onto everything. Part of that grab includes ordering all of the chef’s specials the first night at the hotel restaurant, and that gets her noticed not only by the chef, but also by some fellow diners. They’re also Americans, including her senator, a congressman, and the owner of the department store where Georgia worked. He’s wining and dining the pols to get their support for some legislation favorable to his business interests.
The businessman’s used to being the center of attention, and he’s not too happy when everyone (including his assistant/mistress) starts focusing on Georgia rather than him. He’s also fiercely competitive, and challenges Georgia on several occasions. That never works for him.
Meanwhile, Georgia’s having the time of her life, but she’s not too busy enjoying herself to lend advice to others, including the senator and the mistress. She also keeps questioning why God has done this to her, and why she didn’t start really living earlier. In a small but sweet side story, the guy at work who she adored from afar and who was just starting to notice her tracks her down at the hotel. He’s found out what’s going on and wants to spend whatever time she has left with her. Sweet!
Admittedly, it’s not much of a story, and pretty predictable. But the scenery is gorgeous and the acting is very good. Georgia is played by Queen Latifah, and I defy anyone not to root for her. She looks to be having great fun in this movie, and pulls everyone else along with her. The businessman is Timothy Hutton; a bit of an odd role for him, but he does swarmy really well. Alicia Witt plays his much younger mistress, and while it’s not odd that she ends up dumping him, you can also sort of see what attracted her in the first place. Giancarlo Esposito is the senator and Michael Nouri the congressman. Nouri doesn’t have much of a part, but the actress playing his wife gets the best line in the film at a dinner scene where Hutton’s character goes too far in his attacks on Georgia.
Gerard Depardieu is the chef and matches Queen Latifah in the “having fun” department. They have some lovely scenes together, including a relatively quiet one in a street market when Georgia goes along for the restaurant’s morning shopping. And LL Cool J is terrific as Georgia’s co-worker/suitor. He doesn’t get a lot of scenes, but when he’s on screen his character radiates sincerity.
The Blu-Ray edition is in 1080p High Definition, and as noted above, that European scenery looks gorgeous. Sound is English 5.1 Dolby TrueHD, with options of French or Spanish 5.1 Dolby Digital. Subtitle options are English, French, Spanish and Portuguese. (And let’s hear it for that! Why don’t the Portuguese, and the Brazilians, for that matter, get more respect?)
The special features include two deleted scenes, one featuring LL Cool J. There’s also a making of featurette including most of the stars, and another that looks more closely at the sets that were used and explains some of the decision-making on which locations to use in the filming. Finally, there’s a featurette explaining how this movie took 23 years to make, or rather, re-make. The original was made in 1950, with Alec Guinness in the lead role. The intent was to do a remake during the 1980s, but there were lots of snags along the way, as the featurette recounts.
Lost Holiday isn’t great drama, but it’s thoroughly enjoyable. And it will make you think about what you might do if you knew just how limited the rest of your life was going to be.