Since the sequel, Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, will be released soon (or has just released depending on your region), I thought I watched the original movie on the plane on my way to Taipei.
The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel - for the elderly and beautiful, featured a cast of veterans including Judi Dench, Tom Wilkinson, Bill Nighy, Maggie Smith, Ronald Pickup, Celia Imrie, Penelope Wilton, Dev Patel and Tina Desai.
This was a charming little story shot and directed beautifully and poignantly by John Madden. He was also able to capture the essence of India when our cast took walks or tuk-tuks around the streets. There could have been more of those actually, to keep that authenticity throughout the movie.
The cast were all very good in their performances. But the one who stood out the most, and I actually had to look up the nomination list for Best Supporting Actor for the 2012 Academy Awards to see why he wasn't nominated, was Patel.
As the overly enthusiastic or passionate manager of the hotel with a heart of gold, who went above and beyond; and at times overly confident and foolish; you can't help but to get behind his dream and his character because he portrayed it so well. I can't wait to see this character in the sequel.
I know this probably wasn't a big issue, or perhaps I missed something in the beginning, but one of the most jarring plot point was that everyone arrived on the exact same day to a hotel that had no clients before them. Having said that, I thought Madden's shot of the cast at the airport terminal was spot on.
Weaving a story through the interconnectedness of the characters staying at the hotel was no easy feat. Some had more interactions with each other while others didn't. This would be the only plot point that needed some improvement.
But the whole movie came together very well. There was even time for the love story between Patel and Desai's character that touched on cultural issue, albeit a typical one.
A very enjoyable movie with good performances all around.
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