THE BEST EXOTIC MARIGOLD HOTEL (John Madden). 124 minutes. Opens Friday (May 4). For venues and times, see Movies. Rating: NNN
Here’s an example of a first-rate cast saving a middling movie. John Madden’s The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel is cloying, predictable and obviously manufactured to cash in on an aging baby boomer demographic that doesn’t give two figs about The Avengers.
But when you’ve got Maggie Smith, Judi Dench, Tom Wilkinson and Bill Nighy (among others) on board, who cares? They play British retirees who’ve been lured to a once glorious, now dilapidated Indian hotel for seniors run by a spirited but scattered manager (Slumdog Millionaire’s Dev Patel).
Of course, not long after they check in, their late-in-life epiphanies begin. The fragile widow (Dench) slowly gains self-confidence by working at a call centre, while the racist housekeeper (Smith) learns to get along with those nasty dark-skinned people. Wilkinson’s is the most intriguing character, a man haunted by a traumatic experience when he lived in India as a young man.
It all amounts to a master class in screen acting, with Dench and a terrifically understated Nighy (as a hen-pecked civil servant) taking top honours.
Too bad the various subplots – including an undeveloped one about the hotel manager’s overbearing mother and his girlfriend – make it longer than it needs to be.
