I’ve always liked British humor and British actors. That’s why I really enjoyed watching “The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel” in 2011 and why I was so pleased to know that there was going to be a sequel. I’ve been reading a lot of critics say that “The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel” was an unneeded sequel. But when are sequels “needed”, really? Other than the obvious cases when trilogies or books are adapted to the screen, sequels are always the studio’s desire to profit more with that story and those characters.
Usually sequels are worse than the original and get terrible reviews. But I really believe that “The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel” doesn’t deserve all the bad reviews it’s been getting. I had a lovely time watching it! It had a predictable plot, that’s true, but it was funny and romantic and had a lot of beautiful moments.
In this movie, we see Sonny (Dev Patel, the boy from “Slumdog Millionaire” and responsible for many of the funny bits of the film) trying to expand The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel for the Elderly and Beautiful by trying to buy a new property. He’s also getting ready to marry Sunaina (Tina Desai). Meanwhile, the existent hotel has only one vacancy, which causes troubles when two new gests arrive: Guy Chambers (Richard Gere), a book writer, and Lavinia Beech (Tamsin Greig), a woman who is looking for a place for her mother to stay. All the other characters from the first movie are back in this one, including two of my three favorite Dames: Judi Dench and Maggie Smith (the third one is Julie Andrews).
Maggie Smith (who is 80 years old) is responsible for the best lines in the movie and her character has a sharp tongue, just like her character in “Downton Abbey”. My first recollection of watching her in a movie was in “Sister Act”, when I was still little, but she already looked like she is now! Judi Dench’s character, 19 days younger (“That is the entire lifespan of a wasp!”), is trying to resist getting romantically involved with Douglas (Bill Nighy). Norman and Carol (Ronald Pickup and Diana Hardcastle) are struggling with the idea of an exclusive relationship, as Madge (Celia Imrie) can’t decide between two eligible and very rich suitors.
It’s a feel-good movie and it shows us that people still have difficulties when making life-changing decisions, regardless of their age (putting an end to my illusion that making decisions gets easier as we get older). All the characters are presented with some kind of choice and don’t know how to handle the situation, afraid of making a mistake. As we learn in the movie, “Sometimes it seems to me that the difference between what we want and what we fear is the width of an eyelash.”
