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The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel (2012)

Director: John Madden

Time Out rating

Average user rating

55 reviews

Movie review

From Time Out London

Has Provence been outsourced to Jaipur? If ‘The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel’ is anything to go by, it seems that, along with computer programming and call centres, the new Indian economy covers picturesque getaways for middle-aged, middle-class, middle-of-a-mild-midlife-crisis British folks looking for a change of scenery. ‘Marigold’ deserves a nod for putting retirement-age characters front and centre but its sentimental platitudes and by-the-numbers storytelling offer little actual enjoyment.

The cast constitutes a dream team of veteran thesps: Judi Dench is a widow emerging from her shell; Tom Wilkinson is a judge revisiting his youthful home; Penelope Wilton and Bill Nighy are navigating a marriage on the rocks; Celia Imrie and Ronald Pickup are randy old goats; and Maggie Smith, as a hip-op patient, offers a working-class variant on her sarky-but-shrewd ‘Downton Abbey’ shtick. They are all on enjoyable form but none is really challenged.

Ol Parker’s screenplay is based on Deborah Moggach’s novel ‘These Foolish Things’. The film doesn’t quite sink to the dewy-eyed clichés of Orientalism derided in the book (‘oh the poverty, oh the sunsets!’) but it still presents a superficial take on contemporary India: beaming kids play cricket, wise old men proffer advice and standard-issue star-crossed young lovers (Dev Patel and Tena Desae) are saddled with lines like ‘You’re part of a modern India my mother cannot welcome!’

Such tin-eared dialogue is pretty typical, and the various plot strands trundle along to their predictable termini, the occasional unexpected quirk quickly reabsorbed into the flow. With so many characters to juggle, several end up getting short shrift, and the lessons learned are banal in nature and schematic in execution. They might have just got away with it as a Sunday night mini-series but from a cinematic perspective, this trip shouldn’t have been embarked upon.

Author: Ben Walters

Time Out London Issue 2166: Feb 23-29, 2012

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User reviews of this film

Olwyn said...

Posted on May 05 2012 23:35 I didn't see it myself (I wasn't that brave). However, my 48 year old friend reported back:- Apparently she brought the average age in the audience down quite considerably.

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Zardoz said...

Posted on May 04 2012 21:11 My 15 year old son hated it but my 18 year old son loved it. A good film is a good film no matter what the age of the cast. ther only bad thing about it is the title, which is a bit of a mountful. If you fell asleep then you're probably the kind of person who enjoys Michael Bay movies (ir Kids' stuff). This is for grown ups from 18 years upwards.

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Anita Finaughty said...

Posted on May 04 2012 09:21 Fantastic cast, storyline sweer, but very slow, dull and boring...even fell asleep at one time...dissapointed!!!!!

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Virginia said...

Posted on Apr 26 2012 02:25 Liked it better than I'd expected, would recommend it as super-lite fare to people in characters' age cohort: for its great cast of great British actors, great real-life India visuals and enough humor to keep things lively . With what they had to start with, though, something much better could have been done. Very sorry at apparent need to make boy-girl pairs of the people in the story (yes I remember an exception); kind of amazing a story about people in this stage of life that fails the Bechdel test, as bonds among women are what interest and sustains so many; and though I love Dev Patel to pieces, wished to hear real Indian English from the main Indian character, as one knows that native Indian English speaking actors aren't too hard to scare up, esp. in India.

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Little old ladies inc said...

Posted on Apr 16 2012 23:01 As little old ladies we strongly resent the implication that we are only interested in crocks of sentimental twaddle. Indeed we are offended by such aspertions and feel that there should be no place in Time Out for such ageist incompoops. Our grandchildren (boys, 18 and 15, girls, 16 and 14) thoroughly enjoyed 'Hotel' and that is because it is a very good film. We pity Alex Cape Town while despising his politics.

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alex cape town said...

Posted on Apr 14 2012 19:53 Corny,cliched,twee what a crock of sentimental twaddle for old ladies.

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Betternotrun said...

Posted on Apr 13 2012 23:18 Just back. A love song to India, a homily on the duty to live life to the full, and a tender-hearted examination of love in several forms. A pure delight. Funny, unashamed of sentiment, well-paced, and performed with zest and pleasure by a terrific cast. Dev Patel is preposterously likeable and Judi Dench adds, as always, a degree of depth that adds humanity without undue earnestness. Maggie Smith - again as always - gives a star turn. Hardly worth reading Time Out these days. i think they take their reviewers straight out of film degree courses, where they appear to be trained to be illiterate elitists.

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Morphybum said...

Posted on Apr 13 2012 16:10 When does a trundle become a flow? When a Time Out film critic is at work. Such tin-eared prose is pretty typical...

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Jenny said...

Posted on Apr 01 2012 12:46 Great film with great acting. Would thoroughly recommend seeing it. What a pity it's not to the critics taste, but there again when did we take heed of critics views!!

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rachel said...

Posted on Mar 26 2012 12:37 Going to see this on Saturday - actually teared up watching the promo ads for it the last time I did a full cinema day - three times on the trot! The cast looks like a truly amazing selection of British Gold! I have really high hopes - the reviews from the public are leaving me with a feel good vibe towards this.

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pleasantly surprised said...

Posted on Mar 25 2012 19:47 Better than I'd hoped. Took my Mum for Mother's Day and she absolutely loved it, as did most of the other audience members (who I suspect were all there under similar circumstances to me and my Mum). The acting was good, there was humour that worked. Some of the character arcs were a bit unconvincing (Maggie Smith, maybe? Though she's so good, it's forgivable). I'm not used to seeing films centred on older characters, so it was actually a bit different for me.

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Paul said...

Posted on Mar 24 2012 10:56 Could have been good, but such lazy, lazy scriptwriting. There was certainly a shortage of great lines. Doing 'uplifting' in such a hackneyed cliche painting-by-numbers way ends up being depressing to me. Nice visuals is the best I can say for it.

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Linda H-B said...

Posted on Mar 23 2012 20:29 The film was OK but was not nearly as good as all the Hype suggested it would be.

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Eddy said...

Posted on Mar 23 2012 19:48 What a pompous and patronising review. Ben Walters should get out more, he obviously really didn't understand this movie. This is a great film, very funny with strong characters and charming storyline.

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sherr1trifle said...

Posted on Mar 22 2012 22:33 I went to see this film last night and was blown away by it. This is not a film for young people, but for those of us who understood why the characters did what they did, there were moments of heart wrenchingly emotional acting, moments of exquisite joy and scenes that moved me to tears. British cinema at its very best.

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