We loved this marvelous ensemble comedy, wherein the aged British residents of the hotel in India continue their interesting lives and romances, a sequel that's every bit as good as the first. We laughed a lot. Most of the original characters return in top form: Judi Dench (last blogged in Philomena); Maggie Smith (most recently in My Old Lady); Bill Nighy (last in Pride); Penelope Wilton (most recently in Belle); and Celie Imrie, Ronald Pickup, Dev Patel, and Tina Desai, all last mentioned in first outing. Lillete Dubey (she was in The Lunchbox, but I failed to mention her, as well as the Delightful Monsoon Wedding (2001)) has her own sub-plot this time, and newcomers to the story are Richard Gere (last in Arbitrage) and Tamsin Grieg (one of the stars of Episodes, which I wrote recently is among my favorite TV shows these days).
As in the first one, there is a big dancing finale. This time, we see some rehearsal beforehand, setting us up for the colorful ending. Speaking of colorful, Ben Smithard's cinematography is gorgeous (he also shot The Damned United, The Trip, My Week with Marilyn, and Belle, among others).
Returning from The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel are director John Madden with good timing, screenwriter Ol Parker with sparkling dialogue, and composer Thomas Newman (last scored The Judge) with another wonderful soundtrack, 46 minutes of which can be streamed on youtube. One of my favorite parts of the music is the male vocals, a small bit of which begins at about 32 minutes into the previous link, but most of it is missing.
Fun fact: in the trailer, Muriel (Smith) remarks that she is 19 days older than Evelyn (Dench), when in fact it is Dench who is exactly 19 days older than Smith (birth dates December 9 and 28, 1934).
Apparently my nine-year-old grand-nephew wants to see this movie because of an ad calling it the best comedy in America. With a PG rating there's nothing stopping him, but, other than some humorous rivalry between the 20-something Sonny (Patel) and his buddy, Taylor would likely be bored by the octogenarians' antics and especially their romances (as well as those of the folks in their 60s and 70s). The ad may be exaggerating a bit–Rotten Tomatoes' critics are averaging 63% and the audiences 67–but, then again, it came in sixth at the box office last weekend. We recommend that those of you at least twice as old as Taylor see it on the big screen ASAP.
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