Wednesday 4 March 2015

The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel.



Tuesday night and with almost everything hurting, we went out to the movies. It was a bit of a triumph to make it.

‘The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel’ is the sequel to the first version (which I only saw last week) and judging by the crowds it’s going to be another runaway success.

The story? Not very important.

Was it as good as the first? Not really but it doesn’t really matter…..it’s good.

It’s always a pleasure to spend an evening and the same stellar cast of great British actors like Judi Dench, Bill Nighy, Ronald Pickup and Celia Imrie.

We’re in India and the eternally optimistic proprietor of the hotel is trying to renovate the wreck that his late father failed to save. He hits on the great idea of letting out the rooms to elderly British residents escaping from their dull retirement in a damp, cold and boring country.

It’s also cheap!

Could it ever go wrong? Plenty of great casts have failed but this one didn’t and if Dame Maggie Smith steals the show again, no one seems to mind.

The Hotel that has a roll call every morning just to check that none of the residents have died in the night was never going to sink into sentimentality.

It still has great charm and the colours of India are glorious on a big screen. It’s an ‘adult’ film in that it deals with grown up themes and it also pulls in an audience of young and old, white and Asian which isn’t easy.

Why? Because it’s a film about second chances and if this Blog has been about anything that’s what it was about.

Neil Harris

(a don’t stop till you drop production)


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