Les Vacances de Lena

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.

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.

My review was written in October 1991 after watching the film on Prism video cassette.

Breezy romantic comedy "Lena's Holiday" showcases an engaging new actress Felicity Waterman. Direct-to-video release of the Crown International picture is quality light entertainment.

Waterma, previously seen in small roles in "Die Hard 2" and "Night of the Warrior", portrays Lena, an East German tourist whose misadventures in Los Angeles are lightly geared to the 1989 demise of the Berlin Wall.

Arriving at the airport her bags are switched with those of Dani Minnick, whose muder gets Lena in hot water. Almost everyone, ranging from photographer Nick Mancuso to cab driver Chris Lemmon, is anxious to help the beautiful German girl, except for criminals led by Michael Sarrazin.

Filmmaker Michael Keusch maintains a friendly, romantic tone to the proceedings, with numerous personalities like Bill Dana and Pat Morita popping up for comic relief. Lemmon acts as Lena's unofficial guardian angel in a warm turn that unlike most of his previous roles is careful not to ape the mannerisms of his famous dad, Jack.

Statuesque Waterman handles her German accent with aplomb and creates a charming character whose James Dan obsession makes for a diverting subplot.

Tech credits are fine in a film that fits snugly in the mode of Crown International's traditional drive-in movie fare.

Lena's Holiday is certainly a slightly unusual release from b-movie producers Crown International Pictures. It's one of those uncommon films which combine the comedy and thriller genres, while it also has a title character travelling from an ex-Communist Bloc country which adds a bit of fish-out-of-water to the mix. The story is set in the immediate aftermath of the Berlin Wall coming down. An East German girl uses her new found freedom to visit Los Angeles. As soon as she arrives she finds herself mixed up with violent jewel thieves.

This is an odd mix of genres which results in a film which is hard to fully categorise. There is some comedy but that's offset by moments of murder and threat, so the comedy and thriller elements are almost pulling against one and other. Still, this does ensure that the film is a little different from what you would expect. It's actually not too bad an effort from Crown, who by this point in time were churning out quite a lot of under par efforts. The title character is played by English actress Felicity Waterman who sports a pretty funny accent, it's not always convincing but she is successfully amusing with it and she is undoubtedly the star of the show here in a very likable performance. There's also a completely superfluous appearance from Pat Morita as a slovenly hotel owner…well it was nice to know he was there. This is a pretty middling affair overall in truth but it does have a decent likability factor and it also has the bonus of not being too generic or predictable.

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.