Queen Latifah is not new to the silver screen. She has had minor and major roles in films of varying quality, everything from a winning turn in “Chicago,” to playing a security guard in the incredibly awful “The Cookout.” Her performance in “Last Holiday,” the new film from Wayne Wang, is the best of her career and should lead to more leading roles for her. She proves herself to be a fine actress with endearing charm and beauty. Surrounded by a good script, an excellent supporting cast and a sure handed director, Latifah gives the world the first solid hit of 2006.

The story of “Last Holiday” follows Georgia Byrd, a cookware clerk at a department store in New Orleans. After giving herself a minor concussion, a CAT Scan reveals a rare illness giving her only three weeks to live. After going through denial and anger, Georgia accepts her fate and decides to live her life differently than she has in the past. No longer a meek, penny-pincher, Georgia decides to cash in her bonds and spend the next three weeks in the lap of luxury at a hotel in Prague. Rubbing elbows with the elite, many of whom have connections to New Orleans and her old job, Georgia teaches them about living life with dignity and honoring promises to themselves and others.

This is not a preachy film though and the laughs do not always come from the fish out of water scenario. While the audience quickly comes to like Georgia and not like Kragen, the department store president played by Timothy Hutton, the other characters are not painted so broadly. The characters in the film are full of nuances and the cast, which features such remarkable actors as Giancarlo Espositio and Gerard Depardieu, give the film a weight that many other comedies do not have. LL Cool J also gives a winning performance as Georgia’s unrequited love, Shawn.

“Last Holiday” isn’t perfect. The ending is predictable and there are a few scenes that go on a little long or are a bit too campy, namely the church choir scene and the runaway snowboard scene, but the film doesn’t suffer because of them and the ship is quickly righted by Wang and his cast. Perhaps the thing that I liked best about “Last Holiday” was that it aimed high. Too often in many other films starring Queen Latifah, I felt that the jokes were aimed very low. For every “Beauty Shop,” that told a full story with solid characters, there was a “Taxi,” which did not. Hopefully, films like “Taxi” are in Latifah’s rear-view mirror now and she will be offered more films like this one, films that allow her to test her range and invite audiences to meet a leading lady without the last name Roberts or Bullock.

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