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The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, 2011
A group of elderly British men and women all decide to make their way to India to live in a retirement-like hotel. Arriving there, they find that the hotel is in a shambles, under the care of a well-meaning young man named Sonny (Dev Patel). As Sonny scrambles to keep the hotel open, the British guests grapple with their love lives, marriages, losses, and uncertain futures.
Despite a drool-worthy cast, this film is little more than a collection of tropes and cliches that constantly tread the line between being lazy and offensive.
At every turn this movie just goes wrong. Slightly promising scenarios bloom into unsatisfying resolutions.
Evelyn (Judi Dench) is a widow who is struggling with her husband's debts. In a sequence we're supposed to find . . . inspiring(?) she teaches a bunch of call center workers how to more effectively emotionally manipulate the elderly people they cold call with their "special offers."
Graham (Tom Wilkinson) used to live in India and has returned in part to track down a man with whom he had a relationship. In the laziest form of
Douglas (Bill Nighy) is married to Jean (Penelope Wilton), whose defining characteristic is that she's an anxiety-ridden, joyless shrew. Douglas starts to fall for Evelyn, but will Jean the shrew--you know, his wife--stand in the way of their happiness?
Murial (Maggie Smith) needs a hip replacement and goes to India because she can get the operation faster and cheaper there. She starts out racist, but then with the inexplicably patience of several Indian people, becomes less racist. There's also a part where she reads a contract to two Indian people who had themselves already read the contract. But when she reads it, they're like *GASP* She's right! It can work!
Norman (Ronald Pickup) is old but horny. He charmingly flirts with women 30 years his junior while making constant comments about his penis still working. Madge (Celia Imrie) is also on the hunt for someone new. But we can't help two old people, can we? No. So Madge basically becomes Norman's wingman. The defining characteristic of Norman's character never stops being whether or not he's still capable of penetrative sex.
Sonny's story is maybe the least stupid, because it's mainly him bip-bopping around trying to save the hotel and make things right with the girl he loves, Sunaina (a luminous Tina Desai). Patel and Desai are adorable, and I found myself rooting for them despite how totally predictable their arc was.
A barely pleasant waste of time and talent.
The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, 2011
A group of elderly British men and women all decide to make their way to India to live in a retirement-like hotel. Arriving there, they find that the hotel is in a shambles, under the care of a well-meaning young man named Sonny (Dev Patel). As Sonny scrambles to keep the hotel open, the British guests grapple with their love lives, marriages, losses, and uncertain futures.
Despite a drool-worthy cast, this film is little more than a collection of tropes and cliches that constantly tread the line between being lazy and offensive.
At every turn this movie just goes wrong. Slightly promising scenarios bloom into unsatisfying resolutions.
Evelyn (Judi Dench) is a widow who is struggling with her husband's debts. In a sequence we're supposed to find . . . inspiring(?) she teaches a bunch of call center workers how to more effectively emotionally manipulate the elderly people they cold call with their "special offers."
Graham (Tom Wilkinson) used to live in India and has returned in part to track down a man with whom he had a relationship. In the laziest form of
WARNING: spoilers below
"bury your gays" he finds the guy and then dies peacefully of a heart attack in the garden.
Douglas (Bill Nighy) is married to Jean (Penelope Wilton), whose defining characteristic is that she's an anxiety-ridden, joyless shrew. Douglas starts to fall for Evelyn, but will Jean the shrew--you know, his wife--stand in the way of their happiness?
Murial (Maggie Smith) needs a hip replacement and goes to India because she can get the operation faster and cheaper there. She starts out racist, but then with the inexplicably patience of several Indian people, becomes less racist. There's also a part where she reads a contract to two Indian people who had themselves already read the contract. But when she reads it, they're like *GASP* She's right! It can work!
Norman (Ronald Pickup) is old but horny. He charmingly flirts with women 30 years his junior while making constant comments about his penis still working. Madge (Celia Imrie) is also on the hunt for someone new. But we can't help two old people, can we? No. So Madge basically becomes Norman's wingman. The defining characteristic of Norman's character never stops being whether or not he's still capable of penetrative sex.
Sonny's story is maybe the least stupid, because it's mainly him bip-bopping around trying to save the hotel and make things right with the girl he loves, Sunaina (a luminous Tina Desai). Patel and Desai are adorable, and I found myself rooting for them despite how totally predictable their arc was.
A barely pleasant waste of time and talent.