Exotic helpings go cold
The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel (PG)
3 stars
Judy Dench, Billy Nighy, Richard Gere
DIRECTOR JOHN MADDEN
REVIEW MARK NAGLAZAS
The name Richard Curtis is not among the credits of this sequel to the blockbuster comedy about a group of elderly English folk who travel to India to enjoy low-cost retirement in a ramshackle hotel run by the effervescent entrepreneur Sonny Kapoor (Dev Patel).
But the influence of the rom-com king can be felt in the keenly- anticipated sequel to The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, which is so obsessed with amour that it might well have been called Fifty More Shades of Grey.
Indeed, one of those extra shades of grey comes in the shape of Richard Gere, with the ageless silver fox presumed by Sonny to be an inspector from an American company he is hoping will invest in a second Marigold Hotel (for some reason there seems to be no investors in all of India, the global epicentre of business opportunity).
Gere’s Guy Chambers, however, only has eyes for Dev’s attractive mother (Lillete Dubey) whom he sets about romancing with the blinky-eyed intensity we’re used to from his Hollywood movies (it’s fun seeing an earnest old-fashioned movie star among these self- deprecating Brits but he does feel out of place).
Romance is also obsessing the other residents of the Marigold Hotel, with Bill Nighy’s jittery Douglas desperate to pin down the elusive Evelyn (Judy Dench), who is continuing to expand her horizons by entering the garment business, and the saucy Madge (Celia Imrie) torn between two competing Indian aristocrats.
Meanwhile, Sonny is racing around in an attempt to secure a second hotel to expand his business while taking part in preparations to marry the lovely Sunaina (Tena Desae), which brings him into conflict with a rival for his bride’s affections.
If ever a film didn’t warrant a sequel it is The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, which left their futures delightfully open-ended after each of the characters had come to terms with India and the challenges and opportunities it presents.
Here the returning team of screenwriter Ol Parker and director John Madden struggle to extend their story, forcing it along with the uninteresting, half-baked subplot concerning Sonny’s dream of owning a chain of hotels, Gere’s character shoehorned in to appeal to the American market and way too much talk about love and sex.
There was romance in the first movie but there were many other elements that gave us a rich picture of aged English ex-patriots restarting their lives on the other side of the world, with much laughter coming from the clash of cultures and a lot of heart from Dench’s Evelyn branching out for the first time after living with a man who did not allow her to flourish.
While Parker and Madden should be praised for celebrating mature love here, the characters are so horny that it turns them into teenagers (of course, no actual sex or smooching is shown so as not to turn off the audience who regard oldies being intimate as horror- movie scary).
But the actors are so skilled they just about make this unnecessary sequel fly, dispensing self- deprecating drolleries that will make fans of the first movie fall in love all over again.
The Second Best Exotic Hotel opens tomorrow.
