Lena's Holiday

1990 "An off-the-wall adventure of romance and culture shock."
5.4| 1h40m| PG-13| en
Details

After the fall of the Berlin Wall, Lena, from East Germany travels to Hollywood. After landing she loses her bag and can't find her hotel. She befriends a cab driver who doesn't believe someone is out to get her.

Director

Producted By

Crown International Pictures

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Reviews

Tedfoldol everything you have heard about this movie is true.
Reptileenbu Did you people see the same film I saw?
Frances Chung Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable
Josephina Great story, amazing characters, superb action, enthralling cinematography. Yes, this is something I am glad I spent money on.
Leofwine_draca 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.
Amy Adler 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.
Pepper Anne With the fall of the Berlin wall, East German, Lena (Felicity Waterman)goes on holiday in California. Except, only tours Los Angeles, and Lena is having the worst vacation, as nothing seems to go as planned; she learns that reservations she made for a hotel turned out to be phony, a cab driver rips her off, and worst of all, her luggage has conveniently been switched with that of a lady who suddenly winds up dead. Although, this is understandable, considering how gullible Lena is. You'd think she was new to the planet the way she fell for one stupid scam after the next.Only the scams look good when compared to the fact that she is being pursued by hoods who have been watching her. When the dead lady's bag doesn't contain what they want, they go after Lena, knowing she has the same bag and was the last to see the other lady alive. They figure that she is in on the deal. Things seem to turn around when Lena unexpectedly befriends a fast-talking cab driver named Mike (Chris Lemmon as a sometimes arrogant, sometimes sincere guy), who helps her in sporadically timed moments of emergency.'Lena's Holiday' is more of a dreamy love story and a comedy surrounding a vacation nightmare (but pretty soon only just love the story) than it is a caper, which you're only reminded off at certain convenient moments in the movie. I would say it is about 70% love story, 20% comedy about Lena's disastrous holiday misadventures (which is pretty much the entire intro), and 10% caper. It is still an enjoyable comedy, nonetheless.
William Shackleford My wife (a former East German) happened to tape this off the Romance channel, and we watched it together later. We had never heard of the movie, and doubt if it ever played in theaters here. The situations were very funny and romantic, and the lead actress' East German accent and mannerisms are right on the mark. We had just been visited by a young (21) East German niece of my wife with many similarities to the heroine. We were both amazed to find she is played by an English actress, Felicity Waterman. I would like to see more of her movies. She is perfect in this one. I enjoyed it as much as any movie I've seen in the past year.