The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel was something of a surprising outlier in 2012. Dropped in the thick of superhero movies (literally opposite The Avengers) and $200M blockbusters, the plucky little comedy about a bunch of old fogeys starting over in a shabby Indian hotel quietly charmed its way into plenty of hearts. Naturally appealing to audiences of a certain age, the film served as a prime example that Hollywood needs to make more movies appealing to older audiences. That's an idea everyone can champion, right? Sure, that's fine...just as long as they're better than The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel.
There's nothing exotic and definitely
nothing "best" about this unnecessary sequel which has a mustier
smell than grandma's attic. While the same extraordinary cast of veteran Brit
talents returns, along with director John Madden, that special feeling they were
able to create is nowhere to be found. With a swelling cast, no clear
direction, plus a less intimate storyline, the film actually has fallen victim
to many of the same problems that plague big studio sequels. 
The first film took a very familiar idea,
people growing older dealing with past regrets and new loves, and made them
personal and funny. Now those same people are stuck in a madcap soap opera that
has little to add about making the most of one's golden years. Reuniting much
of the terrific original cast (those who survived, anyway), The Second Best
Exotic Marigold Hotel sees the irritating Sonny (Dev Patel) looking to expand
his thriving business. There's a hotel he wants to buy in Jaipur, and after a
meeting with investors he and irritable business partner Murial (Maggie Smith)
learn that a mysterious inspector will be stopping by to check how things are
running. But who will it be? Who is this mystery shopper? Enter a potential
candidate in Guy Chambers (Richard Gere), a handsome and very eligible man who
arrives at the hotel just in time to earn Sonny's suspicion and the eye of the
ladies. Meanwhile Sonny is consistently screwing up his engagement to Sunaina
(Tena Desae), who has been reunited with an old friend who happens to be better
than Sonny at just about everything.
That could be considered the "A"
plot, but really there are about a dozen flitting in and out, many of which
move at the speed of molasses in winter. Once the central
character, Evelyn (Judi Dench) has been relegated to one of the "B"
plots, as she slow burns a relationship with Douglas (Bill Nighy) and ventures
on a new career buying fabric. Their courtship is tame compared to how
frisky the rest of the hotel guests are. Mage (Celia Imrie) is still an old
trolyp trying to land herself a rich husband; Norman (Ronald Pickup) may have
accidentally paid a taxi driver to kill his girlfriend, and that's just the
start of what are basically a bunch dusted off old BBC sitcom plots. 
Screenwriter Ol Parker crafts a lighter
film but skimps on the emotional impact. There's an awful lot going on without
anything meaningful actually happening, so it falls on the actors to make these
characters worth caring about once more. Dench and Nighy find nuance in the
awkward romance between Evelyn and Douglas, two people of the same age but
moving at different speeds romantically. There are still plenty of laughs to be
found, mostly due to Smith as the sharp-tongued Murial. There's a cynical bite
to every word she utters and it nails friend and foe alike. "I don't
care" is her sharp retort when Madge starts babbling about her tangled
romantic endeavors. We'd hate her if we didn't sense that deep down
Muriel had a big heart. The script goes overboard in trying to tell us that,
but Smith actually shows us with her performance. Also going overboard is Dev
Patel whose Sonny is more of an irritant than before. He was somewhat endearing
underneath all that manic energy before, but now Sonny is a tough character to
root for. Jealousy stirs him to anger and he's so dismissive of his fiancée
that we don't care if he gets married or not. Gere...well, let's just say this
isn't the right setting for him. He's too cheesy, has too much bad rom-com
baggage, and....just no. However, the sight of him dancing Bollywood is worth
the price of admission alone.
Any film with a cast this good has
something going for it, but The
Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel simply
isn't the welcoming place it was before.
Rating: 2.5 out of 5
