Hotel worth second check
THE SECOND BEST EXOTIC MARIGOLD HOTEL
Maggie Smith, Judi Dench, Bill Nighy, Richard Gere. India’s most welcoming hotel opens its doors to a few new guests.
WITH a title like The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, this sequel to the successful first film (which was simply the Best) would seem to be setting itself up for trouble.
But fans of the original should fear not. While there’s nothing particularly innovative in this follow-up to the story of a gang of British pensioners finding new leases on life by shacking up in the Indian establishment of the title, there’s a professionalism and predictability here that’s rather cosy and comfortable.
The great majority of the familiar faces from the first film are back on both sides of the camera, with Shakespeare in Love director John Madden once again calling the shots and the estimable likes of Maggie Smith, Judi Dench and Bill Nighy reprising their roles.
Naturally enough, a couple of new additions have checked in, most notably Richard Gere, transitioning from silver-fox to snow-white.
The story sees the Best Exotic Marigold’s go-getter owner Sonny ( Slumdog Millionaire’s Dev Patel) and his no-nonsense friend and adviser Muriel (Smith) looking to expand Sonny’s hospitality empire by hitting up an American company for some venture capital.
Sonny is keen to purchase a second hotel in the Indian city of Jaipur. But the Americans want to see if he has the right stuff, so they dispatch an undercover inspector to spend a few nights in the Best Exotic Marigold.
When Guy (Gere) shows up, Sonny assumes that this would-be novelist is the inspector and lavishes him with attention, to the point of disregarding new guests like Lavinia (Tamsin Greig).
Meanwhile, among the hotel’s regulars, Douglas (Nighy) and Evelyn (Dench) are tentatively — very tentatively — edging towards a relationship, while Madge (Celia Imrie) is torn between two wealthy Indian suitors.
None of these storylines are reinventing the wheel, of course, but the actors all go through the motions with such understated panache that it’s easy to be swept up in the good-natured comedy and soft-serve melodrama of it all.
It almost goes without saying that Smith, Dench, Nighy and Imrie can breathe life into anything, but their performances here — thoughtful, touching, witty and sad — are lovely reminders nonetheless.
Gere initially seems a little out of place but he quickly adapts to the movie’s easy rhythms, helping make his romance with Sonny’s standoffish mother, gracefully played by Lillete Dubey, a charming subplot.
A perfectly pleasant sojourn in picturesque India with some fine company, The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel is well worth the visit.