The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel (PG)
Starring: Judi Dench, Bill Nighy, Richard Gere, Dev Patel
THE problem with a sequel to a highly popular, successful and original movie is that you are pretty much asking lightning to strike twice in the same place with the same ferocity.
Sure it happens, but not very often.
The lightning is buzzing in the air and you can smell the ozone but it doesn’t quite hit the ground with The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel.
That’s not to say it isn’t a great movie, funny, heart-warming, beautifully shot and wonderfully acted but then with a cast which includes the brilliant and wickedly funny Maggie Smith, Bill Nighy, Judy Dench, Maxine Imrie and the versatile Dev Patel, it’s hard to go wrong. This is a beautiful movie – you can almost smell the heady Indian spices in the air and the dance sequences are beautiful and joyous.
But while The Best Exotic Marigold broke new ground and brought multi-generational romantic comedy to the screens in a strong and legitimate way. The second best is just that.
It treads a similar path to the first although it’s presented as a movie in three parts starting from the engagement party, family party and then the wedding. It takes up not long after the first film with Sonny deciding it’s time to expand (the road trip scenes are beautifully funny).
But although it is walking a now familiar path of autumn love and elder angst, it does so with a lot of heart.
And at its heart are a range of beautifully realised relationships between actors at the top of their game.
The interaction between Dame Maggie and Dev Patel’s characters is both over the top and yet in it’s own way understated.
They play for laughs and push it to the edge but they never quite push the boundaries into the silliness so many actors and writers think you need for something to be funny.
They are the odd couple of many comedies but it works in such a heart-warming way.
This time around we are also treated to a new piece of man-candy in the form of Richard Gere, who manages to hold his own in such esteemed company.
Interestingly most of his interaction is with Patel and Lillete Dubey, who once again brilliantly brings Sonny’s over-bearing over critical mother to life, and not with the indefatigable and commanding Dench or Smith or even Imrie (whose beautifully told romance is one of the most touching of the movie).
This film is like the hotel itself, beautifully shambolic and yet imposing, old but beautiful in its own way.
There is not much new from the first one, but then does there have to be? It’s just nice to revisit this colourful, warm funny world again and prove you don’t have to be 24 and built like Miss World to be in love.
– Tania Philips
