"Keep Christ in Christmas," reads a poster at the church where Georgia Byrd (Queen Latifah) sings in the choir. The camera's brief pan of the group reveals they are earnest and hardworking, preparing their performance for a visit from Sen. Dillings (Giancarlo Esposito), on whom they hope to impress the importance of their churchy work.

Bighearted and big-dreaming, Last Holiday's Georgia has aspirations as well, which she keeps to herself. A cookware salesperson at a New Orleans department store, she watches Emeril and cooks delicious experiments for customers and the kid next door. Though she's instructed to stop "cooking for the moochers," Georgia takes pride and joy in pleasing folks, so she resists management's efforts to "change the culture around here," instead finding ways to give of herself and flash that fabulous smile.

In particular, Georgia wants to get the attention of her most divine co-worker Sean (LL Cool J), who appreciates that when she cooks, "it smells like my mama's house." Though she's unable to tell Sean about it, at home she keeps a Book of Possibilities, in which she's assembled her dream wedding and honeymoon, with her face pasted in alongside his. When a neighborhood kid discovers the book, she's embarrassed, but only smiles sheepishly and turns to her Lean Cuisine meal for comfort. (She doesn't eat her own cooking, another sign of her generous but self-repressed nature.)

It takes a dreadful misunderstanding to make Georgia act on her desires. Following a clunk on the head at work, she's informed that she's got only weeks to live. (The machines her doctor's working with are so obviously decrepit that you're not inclined to put much stock in his diagnosis.) After a little fretting, she quits the job and cleans out her savings for a trip to the resort village Karlovy Vary, where she stays at the Hotel Pupp and impresses the magnificent and generally irascible Chef Didier (Gérard Depardieu) with her grand appetite.

At this point, Wayne Wang's remake of the 1950 Alec Guinness film gives in to the romantic comedic conventions the director indulged in Maid in Manhattan. The fact that Holiday is less tedious than its J.Lo-helmed predecessor is a credit to Latifah, whose luminous energy makes the flat-footed plot proceedings almost bearable. Almost: The cliches are dull by any standard, as Georgia is surrounded at the hotel by unhappy rich people and their servants, called on to instruct them in what's really important.

Georgia's students at the hotel are utterly familiar: women who need to assert themselves and men who need to become sensitive to the needs of their partners, employees and, in the case of Congressman Stewart (Michael Nouri) and the conveniently appearing Sen. Dillings, constituents. The lovely Ms. Burns (Alicia Witt) works for the egregiously self-absorbed executive Kragen (Timothy Hutton); their affair has run its course, but she goes along in order to preserve her career (you can imagine Georgia's thinking on this situation). That Kragen thinks Georgia is a business competitor makes him especially unable to see her charms, until he does, and then he too learns a lesson.

Likewise, imperious hotel valet Ms. Gunther (Susan Kellermann) first perceives Georgia as the enemy, as Gunther is too snooty and regimented to appreciate her guest's vivacity and kindness. She's also been paid by Kragen to snoop in Georgia's luggage. Gunther's eventual turnaround is premised on Georgia's irresistibility. Full of insight and advice, she also teaches by doing, enthusiastically taking up snowboarding, gambling, base jumping and cooking with Chef Didier (in a by-the-numbers montage, for which they agree, "It's not how you start, but how you finish!").

Compassionate and centered, Georgia has something of the Magical Negro about her, as she sheds light on all the troubles of her wealthy white fellows. That said, she does have her own happy ending, and she doesn't have to sacrifice herself for anyone, even if she thinks that's where she's headed for the bulk of the movie. At the same time, the film offers a rudimentary class critique through working-class Georgia's boisterous re-education of the hoity-toity types. But none of these bits quite grants Latifah a performance stretch. She's Latifah pretending to be plain, then she's Latifah shining her considerable light on everyone else.

While the assembly of actors is appealing (Hutton is actually pretty sharp as the not-so-slow-burning Kragen; you might imagine he's got a Matt Dillon-ish recuperation in his future), this comfort-food film can't get out from under its burden of formula. As she gains increased clout (a star on Hollywood Boulevard might count for something), perhaps Queen Latifah can angle for work that's actually challenging.

Last Holiday Directed by Wayne Wang A Paramount release Opens Friday at area theaters