Lena's Holiday (1990)

Simply A Masterpiece

Absolutely Brilliant!

what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

Watching it is like watching the spectacle of a class clown at their best: you laugh at their jokes, instigate their defiance, and "ooooh" when they get in trouble.

I tend to avoid romantic comedies like the plague but I ended up watching LENA'S HOLIDAY anyway, purely because it was put out by Crown International Pictures and I've been watching a lot of their movies over the last year (blame a British TV channel which has been showing much of their back catalogue). Anyway, this is a low budget entry in that particular genre, but one which turns out to be surprisingly warm and likable given that I usually despise the genre.The story is about a young girl from East Germany who ends up in Los Angeles and gets taken advantage of by various unscrupulous characters. Felicity Waterman essays the lead and although her accent occasionally slips she's quite authentic for the most part, and has a sweet nature which makes her easy to root for. The supporting cast are fairly good too, with Chris Lemmon (son of Jack) as the quickfire cab driver and Nick Mancuso less scuzzy than usual (only a bit, mind) as a photographer. There's a random Pat Morita cameo, an aimless sub-plot involving Waterman being pursued by crooks, and plenty of fish-out-of-water humour.

After the fall of the Berlin Wall, east German Lena Jung (Felicity Waterman) is a James Dean fan. She's a tourist in Hollywood. At the airport, a sketchy situation left her with a switched bag. She has trouble with her hotel's name, and the cab stops in front of a gallery where she meets photo artist Flynn (Nick Mancuso). She finally gets to the motel which turns out to be a dump run by Fred (Pat Morita), and finds none of her paid-up 10 days all inclusive luxury tour. In desperation, she goes to Flynn's place. There she discovers that her bag has been switched and Flynn is an lecherous unstable creep. She leaves a box of condoms behind as she tries to exchange the luggage. She finds the woman dead, and the the only help comes from cabbie Mike (Chris Lemmon).Felicity Waterman is very cute and her bad German accent is adorable. That's really all there is in this weak B-movie rom-com-thriller. Chris Lemmon comes after about 30 minutes and he doesn't have good enough charisma. He's also a little too old. I would prefer a younger better male lead. The quality of production is weak for this Crown International Pictures. In the end, I can't recommend this movie.

This film is based upon mixed up luggage at L.A.X.and crooks chasing someone as a result. I can think of at least two movies that were loosely based on the same concept, which came out much earlier than this.Out of Bounds with Anthony Michael Hall and Into The Night with Jeff Goldblum.Chris Lemmon has a very appealing and natural screen presence. What a bizarre twist of fate that his career never took off, yet less appealing actors' careers did. Even being the son of a world famous actor didn't propel him to the next level. That's a shame, because he is wonderful in this role.The lead actress fit her role beyond perfection, because they didn't want her to be smoking-hot like some chick born and raised in the free world. But they still needed her to be above average, in order to hold the male viewer. (She is supposed to be from East Germany)This lady was a bit too thin and sported the accent of an unappealing national identity, (East German), so it wasn't like she was a voluptuous Swedish blonde.Nevertheless, at times she played up her femininity and then she was hot enough.What really marks this film as unique is that it's also based upon an historical milestone (Berlin wall coming down/End of European Communism), and plays off of that dynamic. It was filmed in 1990, right after that event and its' historical paradigm shift took place in '89.Add to the mixture the fact that 1990 marked the beginning of the end of white middle class culture in Los Angeles. The world-rocking events of '89 put an end to the Cold War and our need for lots of Aerospace innovation. This eroded the L.A. economy, which had been filled with good-paying Aerospace Engineer and support jobs.Then just two years later the L.A. riots pushed more middle class folks out, and the floodgates of illegal immigration opened wider to fill the void. So the movie is showing you an L.A. on the cusp of change, although one would not necessarily know that if they were watching it when it came out.1990 also marks the beginning of the end of 80s culture in L.A. So I loved to catch any musical or style-related motifs in this movie. Having said that, it did not have an abundance of synth-pop music, since James Dean and the 50s were a major theme of the movie and the main character drives a car from that era.The gangster stuff and the horribly miscast Nick Mancuso were huge errors, but the cuteness of the characterizations of our two main protagonists saved this film from oblivion. Watch it with your partner and bring some popcorn. I watched it alone, and on an empty stomach. It wasn't satisfying enough to fulfill me, but would have been with the latter two enhancements.

Lena (Felicity Waterman) lives in East Germany, a country just liberated because of the fall of the Berlin Wall. A James Dean fan, she comes to California to visit the Hollywood scene in Los Angeles. However, she first lands in East Los Angeles, in a pretty dire neighborhood. Once she finds the genuine movie making neighborhood, she rests content. But, not for long! Her traveling baggage is mixed up with another woman's, a lady who turns up dead. Lena turns to erstwhile cab driver, Mike (Chris Lemmon) for help in the ensuing and dangerous situations that come her way. Will Lena really have a rest- and-relaxation vacation in LaLa Land? The two stars, Waterman and Lemmon, make this movie palatable. They are attractive and comedically gifted. The script is one of the been there, done that type, however, with little coherence at times. Conversely, the sunny scenery and costumes add to a pleasant viewing. If you are a romcom fan and would climb mountains for a nice kiss or two, you will be happy you took a chance with this film. Everyone else would probably be a bit bored and switch to E.R. reruns.