The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, featuring a stunning array of British talent. With the hotel now firmly established, owner Sonny (Dev Patel) and hotel resident Muriel (Maggie Smith) hope to expand into a franchise, and before long American hotel inspector Guy (Richard Gere) is dispatched to observe and report. In the midst of this disruption, Sonny is also planning on his forthcoming wedding to Sunaina (Tina Desai), and love appears to be blossoming between old hands Douglas (Bill Nighy) and Evelyn (Judi Dench). Here we have the follow-up to 2012’s geriatric comedy smash-hit, featuring a stunning array of British talent. With the hotel now firmly established, owner Sonny (Dev Patel) and hotel resident Muriel (Maggie Smith) hope to expand into a franchise, and before long American hotel inspector Guy (Richard Gere) is dispatched to observe and report. In the midst of this disruption, Sonny is also planning on his forthcoming wedding to Sunaina (Tina Desai), and love appears to be blossoming between old hands Douglas (Bill Nighy) and Evelyn (Judi Dench).





The reason the set-up for this film just took almost 100 words to explain is because the plot has so many tangents and off-shoots that it’s often very difficult to keep up or even be bothered to care, which is a real shame considering the gentle charm and warm humour of the original. Besides a weird lack of colour in the visuals, half the cast look too bored to care and the laugh test is failed spectacularly.









A substantial lack of laughs is the least of the problems however, as the film manages to commit a double-helping of cardinal sins by making Bill Nighy very dull to watch and Dev Patel annoying to listen to. Even Richard Gere doing the Richard Gere thing (silver hair, big chin, bobbing head etc.) feels like a burst of fresh air amongst a once loveable cast of characters who have become old and tired before their time. Of course, it is impossible for Judi Dench to be anything but magnetic, and she is by far and away the most enjoyable and seemingly ageless presence whilst the film withers around her.





There is at least a mild effort at rampant energy towards the latter half, even amongst the painfully stretched asides about the pains and fears of prolonged age, but in an attempt to be deep, it just becomes hollow. The poster claims ‘some things are worth the wait’…this wasn’t.





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