LAST HOLIDAY Text Review
Last Holiday is a romantic comedy directed by Wayne Wang, tells the story of a woman Georgia Bryd who works in a department store and lives her life cautiously until she finds out that she has a terminal sickness and only two weeks to live. After her diagnosis, she liquidates all of her savings to go to Europe to live out some of her dreams. In Europe, she wins the hearts of almost everyone she meets because she’s mysterious but radiates beautiful energy. While she’s away living her best life she realizes that what she’s missing is Sean Matthews, her back home crush.
One of the concepts discussed this year that can be explored in Last Holiday is the deBeavior’s Othering. While in Europe, Georgia draws a lot of attention to herself because she is seemingly very wealthy but no one knows who she is. Because of her wealth the other people on the resort she’s staying at accept her as being a part of the One. The other wealthy people invite her out, accept them as one of them and even find her as somewhat of a threat. While one of the attendants that works at the hotel resents Ms. Byrd because the attendant sees her as just another rich person without a care in the world. Matthew Kragen, who is the owner of the franchise Georgia used to work for, doesn’t care for Georgia because he views her as a threat. He’s unaware for most of the movie that Georgia works for him. All he does know is that she has a lot of money and is stealing his friends from him because unlike him she’s a carefree and likable person. Kragen, attempting to figure out Ms.Byrd pays her room keeper to go through her things and find out who she is and finds out that she works as a saleswoman in one of his stores. In an attempt to make her appear as the Other to all of their peers he exposes Georgia at a dinner telling everyone that she not only works for him but only makes $29,000 a year. Everyone at the table is in disbelief claiming that that can’t be true because Georgia is rich, but she admits that that is true and that she never meant to fool them. When Georgia was considered the One she was immediately accepted by the people around her because of her presumed status and then was able to become loved by all, but if it wasn’t for her presumed status they would’ve never have given her the time of day. She was also Othered by Kragen as soon as he uncovered her status claiming that the only reason everyone entertained Georgia is that they thought she was a Billionaire.
Another concept that is prevalent in Last Holiday is Adichie’s The Danger of a Single Story. When Kragen exposes Georgia for not being as rich as everyone thought he believed that she was posing and that was the end of the story. What he didn’t know is that Georgia was simply trying to live out her dreams because she only had two weeks to live. After Kragen tells the table about Georgia she then explains her situation to them causing everyone to feel sorry. Kragen is stunned when she tells her story but shows very little remorse. This exemplifies The Danger of a Single Story on a smaller scale. Kragen thought he had Georgia all figured out but didn’t even know half of the story.
Although I don’t think this story was written to exemplify these concepts it does a great job displaying them nonetheless, which is the beauty of the concepts of this semester they are so widely applicable to everyday life. Last Holiday is highly recommended whether you’re just looking for a laugh, you want to explore these concepts, or both.