This may sound like sacrilege to some, but the combination of Brit thespians Tom Wilkinson, Judi Dench, Maggie Smith, and Bill Nighy doesn't always produce excellence. They remain as great and in touch emotionally as ever, yet in The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, a film about people expanding their horizons during their twilight years, they are ironically hamstrung by a story that is all too safe and contrived to be memorable.
A group of older Brits venture, for a myriad of different reasons, to a rundown therapeutic resort in India, each full of their own hopes and expectations for the journey. Graham(Tom Wilkinson), fell in love with India as a youngster, but ran away to America in shame, spending the next 40 years of his life regretting the decision. There's Muriel(Maggie Smith), a cranky old racist who hates everything about the "brown people" and doesn't even trust their doctors to perform the hip replacement she sorely needs. Some flee for the hotel out of economic desperation, such as distant married couple, Douglas(Bill Nighy) and Jean(Penelope Wilton). Having lost all of their money in a failed business venture, he sees India as a chance to start again and experience new things, while she envisions it as a prison. She then proceeds to make her experience as confining and miserable as ever. There are other, poorly crafted characters best left forgotten, like the older vixen looking for a rich husband and the old horndog who just wants to feel young. Don't bother counting the minutes until the first Viagra joke. It'll come, just you wait. So do the softball jokes about the spicy food and hot weather. The sitcom nature of the humor has its charms, if only because it's being delivered by such high class actors, but it wears thin extremely fast.
There are some high points, and they mainly revolve around Judi Dench's affecting performance as Evelyn, a woman who was married to the same man for 40 years and now finds herself alone. She relishes the opportunity to reinvent herself, to find some meaning for her life, and Dench portrays her sense of wonder exquisitely. With notions of Rudyard Kipling-like adventures in her head, Evelyn doesn't let the dilapidated state of the Marigold Hotel slow her down for a moment, finding a job for herself and keeping a close eye on the fast talking, ambitious hotel manager, Sonny(Dev Patel). Dench and Nighy share some of the film's strongest moments as their characters evolve and adapt to their surroundings, which causes a rift in his failing marriage. Wilkinson's performance is utterly heartbreaking, with Graham's story featuring one of the few unexpected twists. Just as the film seems to be hitting a stride, you'll be snapped back by another telegraphed subplot, such as all the hotel residents banding together like the geriatric Avengers to save the hotel from being sold.
Directed by John Madden, who took Judi Dench to a Best Supporting Actress win for Shakespeare in Love, the film is well-shot and maintains a mostly cheery tone, and for some it'll be enough to see these seasoned actors, usually seen as British royalty or the upper class cream of the crop, in such unfamiliar surroundings. We learn very little about the Indian culture, however, and neither do any of the characters. The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel could have been something special, but it aims to only be a comfortable, easygoing crowd pleaser, and in that it just barely hits the mark.
