The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel

The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel (Tom Madden, 2011)

I loved this, which is why I saw it twice, and loved it more the second time. It’s a good story, with a tight and polished script which effortlessly manages to keep half a dozen or more subplots all going together. And it’s about old people. We old people are very grateful that we are allowed to have one or two films about us, and we promise to let you get back to your comic-book films, of which God wot there are many. And anyway Judi Dench was in one of them! (I refer of course to Skyfall—which was great, and won a BAFTA for Best British Film.)

This also has some very good actors making very good acting look easy: I include Dev Patel in that (tho perhaps not Maggie Smith who used rather a broad brush). India looks good—tho Udaipur didn’t get to show its best bits: for some of them see another James Bomb flick, Octopussy (1983). We’ve now seen Dev Patel in an Australian film, Lion. He done good.


Garry Gillard | reviews | New: 27 February, 2017 | Now: 27 March, 2017