The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel (2012)
Totally feel-good, very-good movie. Well acted, charming script, fun and politically correct and just mildly exotic. And a chance to get to see a few first rate British talent relaxed and almost having fun for its own sake.
We can't expect this kind of movie to plumb new depth about human relationship, to bridge British-Indian gulfs in one swoop, or to strive for a high art aesthetic. This is almost a formula film about a "ship of fools" where a group of disparate people or suddenly stuck together and they gradually unveil who they really are to each other and to the reader/viewer. It's almost always fun, and has a long history in literature and film.
And it's naturally an interwoven tale of half a dozen older people as well as the young hotel proprietor and his girlfriend in India (an unspecified smaller city). Love blooms and stale relationships come into view. Generational gaps are confronted. A gay man comes to terms to a past encounter, and with his own present openness. And the cultural shock of India (for some) is accommodated in a way that makes the movie a little bit of a travelogue, too.
Director John Madden has a short resume with lots of television on it, but he also directed the winning "Shakespeare in Love," and his feel for the medium without pushing boundaries is clear. I'm actually looking forward to more from him simply for his easy touch.
It's all perfectly delightful. It's all rather warm and enjoyable. If there are not breakthroughs or revelations for most of us, the movie still manages to show how we all can be young as we get old, and can change and be more tolerant, and even start all over again. That's not a small point, and if it's not a new one, so what? So beautifully told and with such confident acting and packaging, it succeeds perfectly.
Totally feel-good, very-good movie. Well acted, charming script, fun and politically correct and just mildly exotic. And a chance to get to see a few first rate British talent relaxed and almost having fun for its own sake.
We can't expect this kind of movie to plumb new depth about human relationship, to bridge British-Indian gulfs in one swoop, or to strive for a high art aesthetic. This is almost a formula film about a "ship of fools" where a group of disparate people or suddenly stuck together and they gradually unveil who they really are to each other and to the reader/viewer. It's almost always fun, and has a long history in literature and film.
And it's naturally an interwoven tale of half a dozen older people as well as the young hotel proprietor and his girlfriend in India (an unspecified smaller city). Love blooms and stale relationships come into view. Generational gaps are confronted. A gay man comes to terms to a past encounter, and with his own present openness. And the cultural shock of India (for some) is accommodated in a way that makes the movie a little bit of a travelogue, too.
Director John Madden has a short resume with lots of television on it, but he also directed the winning "Shakespeare in Love," and his feel for the medium without pushing boundaries is clear. I'm actually looking forward to more from him simply for his easy touch.
It's all perfectly delightful. It's all rather warm and enjoyable. If there are not breakthroughs or revelations for most of us, the movie still manages to show how we all can be young as we get old, and can change and be more tolerant, and even start all over again. That's not a small point, and if it's not a new one, so what? So beautifully told and with such confident acting and packaging, it succeeds perfectly.