The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel (Plus Digital Copy) DVD

A wonderful cast - Judi Dench, Celia Imrie, Bill Nighy, Penelope Wilton, Ronald Pickup, Maggie Smith - plays out this life-affirming comedy drama about new beginnings, says Milo Wakelin.

This warm, engaging adaptation of Deborah Moggach’s novel These Foolish Things is a joyful celebration of life after retirement - and of the rejuvenating effects of trying something new.

Impressed by a glossy (if not altogether accurate) website, seven British retirees decide to swap Britain’s austere grey skies for India’s Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, a residence for “the elderly and beautiful" run by the irrepressibly optimistic Sonny (Dev Patel, Slumdog Millionaire, 2008). Needless to say, the Marigold Hotel turns out to be something of a work in progress: less Merchant Ivory and more It Ain’t Half Hot Mum, and Sonny’s fusion of Anglo-Indian cuisine keeps his guests quick on their feet.

Reading through the cast list, it’s possible to think of worse people to end up with: Judi Dench is elegantly sad as a recently widowed woman who has had to sell her home to pay off her husband’s debts; Bill Nighy and Penelope Wilton are, respectively, passive and aggressive as a married couple who’ve blown their life savings on their daughter’s internet start up; Celia Imrie is a sultry single lady looking for an Indian prince to sweep her off her feet; Tom Wilkinson is a retired judge who is chasing ghosts from his ex-pat childhood in India; and Ronald Pickup plays an aged Lothario who still has a lot of love to give. They’re joined by a gleefully cantankerous Maggie Smith, playing against type as a racist charwoman who has been referred overseas for a hip replacement (possibly because her local hospital wanted to get shot of her).

Shooting on location, director John Madden (Shakespeare in Love) turns the noise and colour of the Indian subcontinent into a character in its own right. It’s a real pleasure watching the film’s different characters respond to their situation, and what could have been a bog-standard Brit-flick blossoms into something sweetly uplifting. Dench and Wilkinson are outstanding; their characters come to India looking for love, and though they are on the same trip they undertake two very different journeys that will linger with you long after the credits roll.

Milo Wakelin on 21st May 2012
Author of 105 reviews