The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel
Grade:A
Rated PG for some language and suggestive comments
Check theaters for show times.
The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, like its predecessor, is dazzling and beautiful and sweet. The movie makes you feel so good you don’t care if a few parts fall flat. It helps that the same director, John Madden, and writer, Ol Parker, are involved in both films.
The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel was a smash hit in 2011. It was the improbable tale of old folks from England (think rain and cold and horrible food) who find themselves staying at a goofy hotel In sunny India, run by an ambitious, dream- big, never-quite-tell-the-complete-truth lovable, hustler named Sonny (Dev Patel). Once they get over the culture shock, most of the Brits have the time of their lives. The characters we like end up living in the hotel. (Except for Tom Wilkinson whose wonderful story I hope you will find out for yourself in the first movie.) The one we didn’t like, mercifully, went back to England.
To make sure all his guests have lived through the night, Sonny reads roll call every morning. Pretty hilarious. It’s the kind of personal touch he gives to his plan to “outsource aging.” The residents have embraced their new lives. Widow Evelyn (81-year old Judi Dench) has been hired as a textile buyer, which means she will be doing a lot of travelling, just at the time when her romance with Douglas (66-year old Bill Nighy) is reaching the commitment stage. Alas, everyone forgets that he is still married to his awful wife Jean (Penelope Hilton) who shows up and stays long enough to provide plenty of hissing time. Sex kitten Madge (63-year-old Celia Imrie) has two rich older Indian men twisted around her little finger and can’t figure out which one to marry. Muriel (81-year old Maggie Smith) still has health problems, and complains about everything that isn’t British, but has used her business acumen to turn the hotel into a success.
A guest arrives, who may or may not be a hotel inspector, in the person of Guy Chambers (66-year old Richard Gere). Gere looks so good that when he appeared onscreen, the women in the audience let out a loud gasp of approval. He is truly incredibly handsome with his thick shock of white hair and I sure hope we will see more of him soon. Alas, his attempted love affair with Sonny’s reluctant mother, Mrs. Kapoor (61-year old Lillette Dubey) is one of the film’s subplots that needed more spice.
While Sonny is having his empire-building efforts thwarted by various nefarious things in life, including his best friend, he and his lovely fiancée Sunaina (Tina Desai) are feeling the pressure caused by planning the most elaborate Indian wedding in film history. No one in real life could possibly make things as gorgeous as their wedding celebration, but, what the heck, there was a crew of dozens of film professionals to do the job. And it looks fantastic…everything is so
sparkling and magical, and old love is just as exciting as new love, that the movie soars even at the slow times.
For those who are worried about such things, there are no beggars or lepers or Mother Teresa missions in this film. This is an India that is hot, but no one sweats, where everyone has a job and feels satisfied, where all the people who were conquered by the boring Brits are still civilized enough to be polite to them. Is it a fairy tale? Yes. And that’s not such a bad thing at a time where films can give us entirely too much fill of ugly reality.
Do you need to have seen the first movie to enjoy the second? I think so. Because part of the fun of the second one is remembering the first. The first film is easily found on DVD. Will there be a sequel for this sequel? Probably– there were enough hints in this outing to give hope for a third.
Do you have to be old to enjoy this film? No, you can enjoy it on many levels if you’re young, but if you’re old, you’ll enjoy it on all its levels… happy, sad, silly, serious, and always dazzling.
The most thrilling aspect of the film, and the reason that it is so popular, is that contrary to our usual youth-obsessed media, the film is a testament to ageless love. Unlike most other films that seniors see, the old men in the Marigold Hotel, prefer women of their own age—beautiful, sexy, self-confident, lusty old women. Enjoy!
Marcianne Miller is a member of SEFCA (Southeast Film Critics Assn.) and NCFCA (North Carolina Film Critics Assn.) Email her at marci@aquamystique.com.
5 Comments
RobotMonkey… I also saw your comment about the building on Biltmore Ave being purchased by Green Man Brewing.
You must be under 25 b/c your comments are so off-the-mark. Are you ready to pony up some money to save a building that a long time ago was a “Colored Hospital”? I’m guessing not. And who would it help anyway? Your have empathy for people of color….great! Go do something to help them MOVE FORWARD.
Marigold Hotel is a MOVIE and they can make it any way they want. Most Americans will never leave our borders (except maybe Canada and Mexico) so it makes no real difference.
Go encourage people to travel and learn in the real world, that would be time and effort well spent.
I’d be interested in donating to a preservation of an “old building” with a history. We all know about “segregation” when it comes to schools and water fountains, but little do we know that it extends to “hospitals.” This is something that we are in “danger” of forgetting. This would “help” everyone get a better understanding of “how and why” our society is the way it is.
I can not help people of color “move forward,” but maybe they don’t need it? That “really” wasn’t my intent with pointing out the failure of historical preservation in the previous article and also not my intent with the questioning of the “hotel” movie.
My problem lies with the “they” who are “making the movie any way they want.”
We are experiencing “indian culture” through the filter of someone who isn’t apart of the culture. Anytime we consume media from outside our own culture, I think we always need to be attentive to the “how and why.”
I have not seen the movie and maybe never will, I was only asking a “question” because that’s important to do and I fear buying too much into the “Western media construct.” However, Marcianne’s response alleviates my anxiety somewhat.
RobotMonkey – It would be pretty difficult to grow up in the USA and not learn about American Indian Wars, slavery, the Civil War, Black emancipation, Japanese internment camps in WWII and the list goes on. All very important stuff.
But, it’s my view that the conversation about racism need to broaden quite a bit. Lately, it’s a re-hash in the media of the white-black issue. I hear white “progressive” people talking to white people about the lives/experiences of black people. What? Why don’t they go talk to black people themselves. Bizarre. But, more importantly, it’s time to look at the racism issue from all of it’s surprising angles. A movie, made in 2004, that does a very good job of that is: Crash. Outstanding film, I can’t recommend it highly enough.
I saw Second Marigold Hotel movie last night and it’s portrayal of Indian people and their culture made me more want to visit the country than any other film of India.
I don’t think the film erases Indian culture, in fact, it makes Indian culture quite attractive to non-Indians and shows how the culture and the wonderful Indian people change the uptight English people for the better. It’s basically how the colonized people conquer the remnants of the Empire builders. Remember, the film is about romance and comedy and seeking new challenges when you’re older – it’s not a historical drama about colonialism or a documentary.
The trailer for this film made me uncomfortable like it completely erasures Indian culture through flippancy and it seems to support a weird imperialist narrative based on British colonialism.
Can you comment on this at all or no?