 |
| Last Holiday - 2006 |
I hope everyone had a good Christmas celebration this year. Coming up next we have 2006's "Last Holiday", a film where a very shy and quiet woman realizes she's dying. She sets out to make her last days on earth ones to remember.
The film's cast includes Queen Latifah, LL Cool J, Timothy Hutton, Giancarlo Esposito, Alicia Witt, Gerard Depardieu, Michael Nouri, Emeril Lagasse, Smokey Robinson, Susan Kellermann, and Matt Ross.
Shy and reserved Georgia Byrd works as a sales associate in a New Orleans department store. She even gives cooking demonstrations. Cooking is a passion of hers, and she relishes every moment she can spend pursuing it.
She's even caught the eye of fellow employee Sean. She's got quite the crush on him as well.
When she has an accident and hits her head at work, Sean takes Georgia for some medical treatment.
Georgia gets a CAT scan and finds out that she has a very rare illness called Lampington's disease. The worst thing is that without treatment she has only three, maybe four, weeks to live.
She starts to pursue treatment, but quickly finds out that her insurance doesn't cover the cost of the surgery and it is VERY expensive. "The cost of a median cranial debulking surgery
is around $340,000. That's without anesthesia. You'll want that," says an insurance rep. Georgia becomes resigned to dying.
She quits her job and decides to cash in all her savings bonds. Georgia goes over her "Book of Possibilities" and sees all the things she wanted to do and never did. She finds the section for her dream holiday and decides that she is going to go on that vacation.
Georgia flies first class to Karlovy Vary to an exclusive resort. She charters a helicopter to take her from Prague to Karlovy Vary, and once there she books herself into the presidential suite.
And then....she goes shopping! Georgia has the shopkeepers make her "international".
At dinner, Georgia finds out that her favorite cook, Chef Didier, is preparing the meal. She orders one of everything on the menu.
The famed chef comes out and lavishes attention on Georgia, which is noticed by some other influential hotel guests, who wonder exactly who Georgia is. They think she must be very wealthy in order to command the treatment she is getting.
During her time at the hotel, Georgia has the time of her life. She skies, relaxes, and has special meals prepared for her by Chef Didier. She even begins to mix and mingle with the other guests. The normally shy and quiet Georgia comes out of her shell, and she tells the other guests some hard truths during their acquaintance.
The daredevil in Georgia has her signing up to go base jumping. After a successful jump, she can't believe how good she's feeling.
She also has some time for quiet reflection as she roams the streets of Karlovy Vary.
Her new friends invite her to join them in the casino (where Georgia does VERY well), and afterwards they attend a Smokey Robinson concert together. To her, all this good luck just doesn't make sense, coming as it does at the end of her life.
Chef Didier invites Georgia to cook with him for a big New Year's party, and she's thrilled to get the chance. Also that night, the truth comes out about Georgia. She's not some wealthy bigshot. She's just a woman who is dying and is ready to go out in style.
However, it seems that Georgia was misdiagnosed due to a faulty CAT scan machine. She's not going to die. She's going to live!
Nobody is more surprised than Georgia when she gets a visit from Sean, the guy who likes her back home. He tells her that he wants to be with her even if it's only for five minutes. The two celebrate Georgia's good news.
Georgia's life completely changes. Back home in Louisiana, she opens her own restaurant, Georgia's Joint. Chef Didier comes over for the opening as well as several celebrities. Georgia can't believe her good fortune as she and Sean embrace.
Cast rundown:
Queen Latifah...............................Georgia Byrd
LL Cool J......................................Sean Matthews
Timothy Hutton.............................Matthew Kragen
Giancarlo Esposito.........................Senator Dillings
Alicia Witt....................................Ms. Burns
Gerard Depardieu.........................Chef Didier
Michael Nouri...............................Congressman Stewart
Emeril Lagasse.............................Himself
Smokey Robinson.........................Himself
Susan Kellermann.........................Gunther
Matt Ross....................................Mr. Adamian
And that's it for Last Holiday. All the dishes in this film were prepared by Food Network chefs. Queen Latifah was taught some basic cooking techniques so that she would look like a professional cook. After the film was released, Food Network posted the recipes for all the dishes on their website.
No comments:
Post a Comment