Last Holiday Movie

Last night we watched this movie with Queen Latifah. Melanie picked it out and brought it home. It wouldn't have been my pick, but I was pleasantly surprised. The movie actually has a positive message that anybody would benefit from who takes it to heart.

Georgia Byrd, the lead role played by Queen Latifah, is working a dead end job as a sales clerk, when she is told by her doctor that she has a rare disease and only has three weeks to live. She immediately confronts her heavy handed boss, quits her job, cashes in her savings and IRA and leaves for her dream vacation.

She goes to the Grandhotel Pupp in the spa city of Karlovy Vary, Czech Republic. There, Georgia makes extensive use of the hotel's spa. She attempts snowboarding and base jumping off of a dam, enjoys succulent meals prepared by the world-renowned Chef Didier, occupies the presidential suite, and otherwise enjoys herself.

She wins over the hotel's staff with her direct manner and kindness, with the exception of the cantankerous floor valet Miss Gunther, who eventually becomes a friend too. She meets Matthew Kragen (Timothy Hutton), the businessman who owns the store where she worked. Also at the resort are his assistant/mistress Ms. Burns, a pandering Louisiana senator, and a prominent congressman.

Since she is dying anyway, she speaks the truth to each of these people, helping them in the process. She comes out of her shell and lives life to the fullest.

In the end , Georgia finds out that the machine used to test her at the hospital was broken and that she is, in fact, not dying. The movie ends with her opening her own restaurant, a lifelong dream.

Tracy Allerton of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel reviewed the movie and said, "Almost makes you want to cash in your IRA and live it up." I agree. The strength of this movie is that it shows how much we all allow fear to hold us back in life. It encourages the viewer to live every day as if we only had three weeks to live.

Fear was the immediate result of man's fall in the garden of Eden. "I heard your voice and I was afraid, so I hid myself," Adam said. Mankind has been doing that every since then. If God is Sovereign and He does indeed love us, why don't we live more boldly? That's what I want to do, don't you? Let's do it.