The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel
{4.5/5} “Everything will be all right in the end… if it’s not all right then it’s not yet the end.”
A group of retirees from Britain, previously unknown to each other, travel to Jaipur, India to live in a hotel. The hotel turns out to be a bit more run down than the brochure indicated. But the young man who runs the place has big plans. Some of them embrace their new life, some of them are afraid of it, and one of them is looking for someone he left behind 40 years ago.
The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel was released in 2012.
Like We Bought a Zoo (which I watched yesterday) it’s a movie with no fist fights and no one is trying to take over the world. It’s about different people’s reactions to their new situation.
It’s about learning how to be retired, how to be without your husband, how to be old.
Some parts are very funny. It was filmed in India.
I’ve seen Judi Dench, Maggie Smith, and Tom Wilkinson in several movies and they’re always a pleasure to watch.
The Indian-themed music is by Thomas Newman (Side Effects).
Judi Dench (Skyfall) plays Evelyn and Tom Wilkinson (The Full Monty) plays Graham. Maggie Smith (Gosford Park) plays Muriel and Bill Nighy (Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest) plays Douglas. Dev Patel (Slumdog Millionaire) plays Sonny.
Celia Imrie (Bridget Jones’s Diary) plays Madge and Ronald Pickup (The Mission) plays Norman. Penelope Wilton (Pride & Prejudice) plays Jean.
The movie was directed by John Madden (Shakespeare in Love).
A sequel has been announced.