Directed by: John Madden
Starring: Dev Patel, Judi Dench, Maggie Smith, Richard Gere, Tamsin Grieg, Bill Nighy, David Strathairn
The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel is better than its sequel mostly due to the gravitas brought by Tom Wilkinson and his subplot concerning his homosexuality and traveling to India to find his long-lost love. Since Wilkinson died in the first film, he is not around to save The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, which is fun, slight, and keeps a lot of balls up in the air which all land appropriately at the end. Was it really even necessary to make this sequel?
Director John Madden returns with most of the cast from the first film and with the addition of Gere. Gere plays a man whom Sonny (Patel), the hotel's manager, swears is a hotel inspector working undercover for potential investors in the hotel. Sonny wants to expand, but needs the funding of an American corporation. They tell him an inspector will be coming to the location shortly to conduct an audit. My question is, why would the corporation tip its hand and tell Sonny that a seemingly anonymous inspector will be there to look in on things? My answer is that they realized that this subplot would lead to misunderstandings and plot swerves where none are really needed.
The mostly British cast is of course delightful, as they were in the original film. Gere exudes his usual amount of quiet charm as he woos Sonny's mother in an unexpected romance. Sonny's plate is plenty full just running the hotel. Throw in his mom's romance, his upcoming wedding, and a possible business/personal rival and you have a guy running around like a chicken with his head cut off.
Maggie Smith draws the most laughs with her brutal honesty that stays just this side of tactless. Dench's burgeoning romance with Nighy is nice, but predictable. Whatever happens in The Second Best Exotic Margiold Hotel is neatly resolved by the film's end. Unlike the first film, which delves more into lost souls who find happiness in an unexpected place and had a more serious undertone, this film is handled more at a sitcom, superficial level. You can call it Love Actually for an older generation. I had fun watching it, but the thought that kept nagging at me afterward was: Was this entirely necessary? Maybe, maybe not.
No comments:
Post a Comment