FILM REVIEW The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel

SILVER SCREENERS?Celia Imrie, Ronald Pickup, Diana Hardcastle, Judi Dench, Maggie Smith and Bill Nighy star in the Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel.

Retirement romp revisited


Cinema
Ciara Moynihan

The lauded cast of the much-loved ‘Best Exotic Marigold Hotel’ burst (or more properly, gently ambled) back onto our screens last week, bringing with them another colourful comedy to raise the spirits.
This sequel, also set in Jaipur, revolves around two main plot lines – the upcoming wedding of the hotel’s lovably enthusiastic and wildly verbose manager, Sonny Kapoor (Dev Patel), and his fiancée, Sunaina (Tena Desae), and Sonny’s efforts to expand his hotel for retired foreigners with the purchase of a second property.
Maggie Smith is back as Muriel Donnelly, a cantankerous retired housekeeper in a more-or-less permanent state of affrontedness (think the Dowager Countess with an East Enders accent). Muriel and Sonny head to the US to woo an investor for their Jaipur hotel’s expansion. The potential investor is unwilling to sign on the dotted line until he gets an independent opinion on the Marigold’s credentials, and he signals plans to send an inspector to the hotel.
Back in Jaipur, a new addition to the cast, Richard Gere cuts a dashing figure as an American guest with his eye on Sonny’s irascible mother. Is he the inspector, or isn’t he? The question sets Sonny, already in a flap about an old friend’s intentions towards Sunaina, into a senseless spin.
Subplots – and there are many – largely focus on love and will-they, won’t-they flirtations. The inimitable Judi Dench and the frankly fabulous Bill Nighy are perfectly cast as Evelyn and Douglas, close friends who might become more, one as enchantingly vulnerable as the other. Penelope Wilton pops up again as Douglas’s now-estranged wife, a perfect portrayal of an oh-so-slightly unhinged woman battling onward in a frightfully British way.  
The lascivious Madge Hardcastle (Celia Imrie) is still at large, torn between two suitors. Lothario Norman (Ronald Pickup, no pun intended) has sort-of settled down with Carol (Diana Hardcastle), although it seems that all is not as it seems. Even Sonny’s love rival gets a frisson of a flirtatious subplot with another mysterious hotel guest. The only character who seems untouched by cupid in a sari is the spiky Muriel. But then, she could never imagine tolerating another human being for much more than a day.
The ‘Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel’ dishes up plenty of laughs and bucket loads of life-affirming sentimentality. It does occasionally stray into the saccharin, and sometimes over-eggs the grab-life-while-you-still-can theme. There are no surprises, and no twists. A gentle and uplifting film, with lots of welcome warmth and colour for a cold, cusp-of-spring night out.

Rating 7 out of 10