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Superb
British cast at work.
THE BEST
EXOTIC MARIGOLD HOTEL
An Illusion Review by Joan Ellis
See what a good trailer can do: The Best
Exotic Marigold Hotel opened in a packed theater on a sunny afternoon
after a week of rain. This was an audience already steeped in the pure
pleasure of watching a superb British cast at work. There are problems
with this movie, but watching the sly grace of Judi Dench, Maggie Smith,
Tom Wilkinson, and Bill Nighy and their peers is not one of them.
Director John
Madden opens with short shots of seven retirees who need, for various
reasons, to get away from England. In the words of the proprietor of The
Marigold Hotel, the Brits are "outsourcing their retirement" in much the
same way as the world has come to outsourcing customer service to Indian
phone banks.
Mrs.
Greenslade (Judi Dench) is newly widowed and short on funds; Mr. Dashwood
(Tom Wilkinson) wants to return to India in search of his first love; Mrs.
Donnely (Maggie Smith) is looking for a new hip at a low price. Mr. and
Mrs. Ainslie (Bill Nighy and Penelope Wilton) are miserable together and
need a change; Mr. Cousins (Ronald Pickup) is searching for a final one
night stand, and Mrs. Hardcastle (Celia Imrie) is sick of family life.
They have settled on "The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel for the Old and
Beautiful" in Udaipur.
The exotic
qualities of the once grand hotel, exist now only in the mind of Sonny
Kapoor (Dev Patel) who has inherited from his father both the hotel and
dreams for its refurbishment. As the seven settle in to the new culture,
they all become involved in small dramas of their own making. India is "an
assault on the senses" according to Mrs. Ainslee. "Yes, of color and
light, of smiles and kindness, of crowds, and smells and food" Mr.
Dashwood replies.
When several
complain of the dilapidation, proprietor Kapoor replies that he had "a
vision of the future which I hoped would by now be the present." Mrs.
Ainslie who makes even the beauty something to hate, refers to the
experience as "a gap year."
Is there
anyone who can better convey humanity and decency than Judi Dench? Even
when she sits startlingly still, saying nothing, just listening, she draws
every eye in the house. Dench, Tom Wilkinson, and Bill Nighy all have a
certain sadness in their insights and regrets, and we care about them.
So what then
are the problems? The tone of the movie is sometimes at odds with itself,
a kind of awkward confusion between comedy and anger. There is an
underlying sadness that is natural to endings, but there is also a nasty
xenophobia that infects several of the negative characters - the ugly
tourists in a foreign land. Two of the fine actors are asked to throw
these one-step-too-far grenades into the gentle, graceful comedy we
thought we were watching. Should you go? With this cast? Of course.
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