The story of The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel is one of a series of journeys of self-realization. A collection of retirees travels from England to India to live in a lavish hotel, only to find their accommodations aren’t what they expected. Some came for love, others just to get away … and one even to get her hip replaced. Like the hotel not being what they expected, each finds something in India that they had not planned on.
The cast is comprised of British acting royalty. Dame Judy Dench plays Evelyn Greenslade, a recent widower who has discovered her late husband didn’t leave her financially sound. Bill Nighy and Penelope Wilton are Douglas and Jean Ainsile, a couple whose relationship has outlived its lifespan. Ronald Pickup is Norman Cousins, whom we first meet trying to pick up a woman at least 30 years his senior. Celia Irme‘s Madge Hardcastle is likely at the same bar, working on landing her next sugar daddy. Tom Wilkinson’s Graham Dashwood is a retired judge on a quest to find a long lost love. Dame Maggie Smith rounds out the cast as Muriel Donnelly a former domestic servant who might be more than a little racist.
The group of British retirees all find their way to India, to the luxury resort they expect in the Best Exotic Marigold Hotel. The actual facility, operated by a son trying to rekindle his failed father’s dream (Sonny Kapoor, played by Dev Patel), does not live up to the pictures on the brochure. Sonny is dealing with a whole host of challenges, including a modern girlfriend and his very traditional girlfriend.
With so many acting heavyweights, you might think that a character or two might get the short shrift, but the film manages to give everyone a chance to shine. Each of the characters experiences a specific narrative arc: some gaining things, others losing them — and still others gaining things by losing things. It’s all about the gaining and the losing apparently.
Dench’s Evelyn stood out in particular to me. Hers was the character least prepared for such a major life change, but handled it surprisingly better than I think even she expected. She embraced her new life, to the point of finding a job at a call center. There was just something about the way the Dench played the character that just oozed “comfortable.” I secretly – I guess less secretly now – have this desire to see Dench play God.
Marigold Hotel was good, but the story is definitely targeted at the senior crowd, so there were moments the audience at my screening loved that fell flat with me. But the film manages to be more accessible to a broader audience than other movies made for the demographic (I’m looking at you, Something’s Got to Give). And the cast is, quite obviously, pretty damn amazing.