Movie Review: The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel

The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, an unlikely sequel, is like that stranger who you once met while waiting at a queue and became fast friends. You never thought you'd see them again, which is why I view this film in such an affectionate light.

Directed by John Madden (who also helmed the first film), the film pops back into the lives of those British senior citizens (reinventing their life in India) and the intrepid entrepreneur Sonny Kapoor (Dev Patel) whose vision brought them all together. The chaos of The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel has largely died down and replaced with the hustle bustle of an upcoming wedding. Sonny is to marry his fiancée Sunaina (Tina Desai) in a few days while negotiating with an American company to expand his business with more hotels.

The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel has been running to full capacity with its patrons now working in India as well. There's no rest for these active retirees. Evelyn (Judi Dench) sources materials for a clothing startup, Douglas (Bill Nighy) gives misinformed tours of Jaipur landmarks, Madge (Celia Imrie) and Norman (Ronald Pickup) run the Viceroy Club for expats while Mrs Donnelly (Maggie Smith) handles the hotel operations. They've all found their purpose again.

In walk in two new guests, one, the meek Lavinia Beech (Tamsin Grieg) looking for a place for her mother and the other, a dashing American Guy Chambers (Richard Gere) who wants to start to write a book. Sonny is convinced the Chambers is the inspector sent by his potential American investor to scout out his hotel. This and other misunderstandings lead to him being distracted with his wedding plans. Of course, all these kerfuffles get sorted out on the way to a big fat Indian wedding celebration. But along the way, these retirees learn that reinvention takes a lot of work, while Sonny learns how to put others before himself. 

With the median age of the actors onscreen in the late 60s, most of the cast from the first film (minus Tom Wilkinson) is back. This time, veterans Dench and Smith get the most screen time as they adjust to their new leadership roles. Their scenes together are stellar and there's great warmth between these two great actresses and friends. The newbie of the group Richard Gere engages in a possible romance with Sonny's mother (Lillette Kapoor), while Douglas tries to initiate one with Evelyn. 

There are terrific one-liners (mostly from Maggie Smith) and the dusty locales of Jaipur and Mumbai are spruced up by Ben Smithard's gorgeous cinematography. My only gripe with the film was its use of Bollywood music which was stuck 10 years in the past. Not one current song could be heard. It could have been due to copyright issues but I wish the music was updated. No Indian sangeet or wedding would played outdated music, but that's just a minor niggle.

Overall, The Second Best Exotic Marigold is a wonderful follow-up to 2011's The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel. The fact that the sequel too debuted at #1 at the box office in countries such as Australia, New Zealand and the UK is proof that audiences don't just want to superhero franchises and dystopian thrillers onscreen. Screenwriter Ol Parker created a fitting environment in which the original characters could return. It may not be everyone's cup of tea and like the title suggests it will run second best to its predessor. But somehow, I can't help but regard the film with fondness. 

Directed by John Madden; Screenplay by Ol Parker; Cinematography by Ben Smithard; Edited by Victoria Boydell; Music by Thomas Newman

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New Trailer: The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel

The surprising sequel that most people didn't see coming, The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, has a brand new trailer.  Returning director John Madden and cast Dames Judi Dench and Maggie Smith, Bill Nighy, Dev Patel, Celia Imrie, Penelope Wilton from 2011's The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel are joined by newcomers Richard Gere, David Straithairn and Tamsin Greig.  Taking place eight months after the first film, we check in with the guests and staff of the The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel for the Elderly and the Beautiful (great hotel name, by the way) and how they're doing.  It's seems they're all doing well now that Richard Gere has joined them. Of course, they are!  Though I had to sigh at that random shot of an elephant in the trailer.  Yes, we have elephants in India, Hollywood! Please get over it by now.  The film releases on March 6, 2015.

Around the World in Posters: The Book Thief, Her, The Monuments Men and more!

 

Poster for Markus Zusak's novel adaptation The Book Thief. One of my favorites in the past few years, hoping the film adapts the book's themes well.

 J.C. Chandor's All is Lost starring Robert Redford - Basically Life of Pi for old people and without the tiger!

Simple words on the poster for Her, A Spike Jonze Love Story. 

Daniel Radcliffe has left Harry Potter far, far behind. Here he is in Kill Your Darlings as Allen Ginsberg.

 Directed by Oscar-magnet George Clooney, the all-star cast features Matt Damon, Bill Murray, John Goodman, Cate Blanchett, Jean Dujardin and of course, Clooney.  It's The Monuments Men.

Philomena is in my top 5 of movies I want to see by the end of this year. 

The always lovely Judi Dench and Steve Coogan star.

 Thor (Chris Hemsworth) vs. some guy. 

Actually it's Daniel Bruhl as Niki Lauda in Ron Howard's F1 racing thriller Rush.

In his fantasies, Walter Mitty (Ben Stiller) can go anywhere. 

Welcome to The Secret Life of Walter Mitty.

You had me at Mark Ruffalo.  The poster for Thanks for Sharing featuring Ruffalo,
Tim Robbins, Gwyneth Paltrow, Josh Gad, Pink and Joel Richardson.

The first film made in Saudi Arabia by a woman with a young lead who enters a competition 

so she can win a green bicycle. I'm definitely rooting for Wadjda.

What I'm Thankful For This Year: Movies Edition

This post has become like tradition since I have been writing about what I've been thankful for on Thanksgiving the past two years so here's my humble list for this past year.

Joss Whedon: We Buffy, Firefly and even Dollhouse (sigh) fans knew the immense talent of writer-director Joss Whedon long before The Avengers became the film that practically everyone on the planet saw.  But now he's graduated to the big screen with writing, producing and directing screen credits in such varied films as The Avengers, The Cabin in the Woods and Much Ado About Nothing. We do miss him on the small screen. Hell, yeah! But then he's also producing the TV series based on the S.H.I.E.L.D agents from Avengers. Is there anything this man can't do well?

Damsels in Distress: Films with great dialogue that stay with you long after you've seen the film are so rare these days.  It's only after The Social Network that I have enjoyed the dialogues and the characters of a film so much.  I'm still waiting for to incorporate 'playboy operator move' in a British accent into everyday conversation.  I hope to do so someday.  And even though the film released last year, I'm thankful that after 13 years, we got a gem of a film like this from director Walt Stillman.

Finding Nemo re-release: This film gets me like no other Pixar film.  I love Up, Wall-E, Toy Story an all but it's Finding Nemo with which I have a deep emotional connection.  I missed out on seeing it in theaters during it's initial release and I have regretted it ever since.  But the 3D re-release gave me another opportunity and it was wonderful to experience it with a whole new generation to get to see the film for the first time ever.

Christopher Nolan's Batman Trilogy: Just as we said goodbye to Harry Potter last year, this year we had to say to goodbye to one of the finest trilogies in film history.  It will continue to influence superhero and franchise who all wanted to emulate the tone and success of the Batman trilogy that put a very troubled and human face to a superhero, brought about villains we're still talking about and has performances that will forever be remembered.  From one of the most brilliant directors of his generation to the cast and crew who created a universe which is held up for one of best interpretation of a comic book to film ever.

The cast of The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel: While everyone was talking about the crew that made up The Avengers this summer, another cast was slowly being talked about as well. The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel was the big surprise success of the summer season and now there's even talk of a sequel to bring back the talented cast of British actors.  The film about seniors in the twilight of their lives was touching, funny and enjoyable to watch.  With such amazing seasoned actors like Judi Dench, Maggie Smith, Bill Nighy and Tom Wilkinson, how can you say no? More please!

What are you thankful for the movies you've seen this past year?

Movie Review: Skyfall

It's always delightful to hear the words, "Bond, James Bond" uttered onscreen and the new Bond film Skyfall certainly delivers on the chills and thrills.

As Daniel Craig settles into his third outing as Bond and utters the words, "Brave New World," you know this is not going to be a typical Bond film.  This is the 23rd film in a franchise that celebrates its 50th anniversary this year.  An incredible achievement for any franchise but it's just amazing that a character like James Bond can bring together generations of grandfathers, fathers and sons who can all claim him as their favorite spy, Agent 007.

With a traditional creative opening credits sequence that ominously hints all about death and features a song by the brilliant Adele, Skyfall brings us into the action quickly with an exciting chase sequence in Istanbul, Turkey where a hard drive containing the names of all the MI6 agents has been stolen and Bond is in hard pursuit of it.  This reminded me too much of plots featured on TV shows like Chuck, Alias and even another film released earlier this year, Safe House.  Seriously, people in intelligence services, maybe next time try not to keep such important information on something that can be easily retrieved as a hard drive.

But as it happens, Bond is shot by fellow agent Eve (Naomie Harris) and the bad guy Patrice (Ola Rapace).  This is not a spoiler, you've probably gleaned the same information if you've seen the trailer.  Everyone assumes he's dead and with the stolen all-important hard drive missing, M (Judi Dench) is left to face the fire for the failed mission.  She is brought to task by Chairman of the Intelligence and Security Committee Gareth Mallory (Ralph Fiennes).

But M has more problems coming up.  Someone is after her, after her past and won't stop for anything. Bond has to step out of the shadows and back into being Agent 007.  He is tested again to show whether he's fit to being an agent again.  I liked that little sequence of various tests on him.  Everyone assumes Bond to be superhuman despite his legendary vices.  They show us the effect on his not so young body.

Nevertheless, we all know that there's no better agent than 007 in Her Majesty's Secret Service.  Bond goes to Shanghai where he meets the lovely Bond girl Severine (Berenice Lim Marlohe) to find out who has the list and is after M.  She leads to him to the very captivating Silva (Javier Bardem), a villain that I have a feeling most people won't get.  Which is a shame because Bardem is so good at transforming himself into whichever character he plays.

Silva manages to rankle M and raise Bond's protective instincts towards her, the only steady woman in his life.  He calls her ma'am, just as he would the Queen.  But revenge is an all-consuming thing and Silva can't see anything beyond it.  Aiding Bond as always is the ever reliable team at MI6, there's Mallory and Eve, Tanner (Rory Kinnear) and the new quartermaster, Q (Ben Whishaw), a wonderful addition to Bond's world.  I loved their scenes together and past references to Bond history with guns and technology.

In fact, there were lots of witty one-liners, so typically Bond, that were enjoyable and familiar.  There were the cars, the martini, the iconic theme music, the shots of London, it was the same and yet different as the director Sam Mendes and cast put their own stamp on it.  The product placements which I thought would be glaringly obvious were subtler than I thought but really these days which film doesn't have them prominently displayed and especially in this case it was one of the main reasons why this film was financed and saved MGM from bankruptcy.

I tried to recall why this film reminded me of another and then it came to me, I recalled reading how Mendes was inspired by Christopher Nolan's Batman trilogy and this movie had the same flow to it.  In a good way.  It was dark where it needed to be and light where it should be especially at the end where everything is set up for the next film.  Great balance.

However, the lighting and atmosphere for the climatic resolution was really dim and hard to see but one can definitely guess to what's going on.  Despite that minor quibble, Skyfall joins the list of Bond films as worthy addition and a great way for the franchise to still live on in this modern world.

Directed by Sam Mendes; Written by Neal Purvis & Robert Wade and John Logan; Cinematography by Roger Deakins; Editing by Stuart Baird; Music by Thomas Newman.

Additional cast: Albert Finney, Helen McCrory

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Movie Review: The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel

Don't be fooled by the title but The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel has little to do with the actual hotel and more to do with its British inhabitants who have come to seek a promise of a better life in the warmer and more hospitable climes of India.  

The film opens in Britain to introduce us to seven different senior citizens, all dealing with various life-changing crises in their lives and to whom The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel looks like the best option out.  There's Evelyn (Judi Dench) whose husband has just died and has never been on her own, a high court judge Graham (Tom Wilkinson) who once used to live in India, Douglas (Bill Nighy) and Jean (Penelope Wilton) who invested all their money in their daughter's failed internet business, Madge (Celia Imrie) who's looking for her next wealthy husband, Norman (Donald Pickup) who doesn't want to be lonely anymore and finally Muriel (Maggie Smith) who looked after another family all her life and now has no one to look after her as she needs a hip replacement.  Together they all gather at the airport and onto to India where the journey begins with a bump in a road as their plane to Jaipur has been canceled.  

So instead they pile on a bus and head to the hotel where they discover the hotel is not as advertised.  Most of them adjust to the situation but Jean seems most upset and wants her money back.  No problem, says the manager of the soon-to-be-updated hotel, Sonny (Dev Patel), it'll be done in approximately three months.  Here he says my favorite line from the film, "Everything will be alright in the end...if it's not alright then its not the end."  He keeps repeating it in the movie to assure the characters and also himself.  Sonny has great ambitions for the hotel and his future but his plans are just not quite there yet.

The rest of the seniors may not be so sure of Sonny but they do they do their best and move forward.  Evelyn ventures forth and gets her first ever job, Norman and Madge hang out the posh club looking for companionship, Graham goes everyday to the public records office in search of an old friend while Jean can only stay at the hotel.  While cliched, the film shows us how this very drastic change of scenery brings that much needed push in their lives for many of the characters.  

The cast is absolutely stellar with several awards amongst them.  Director John Madden maneuvers them well; they all get their moment to shine.  It reminds you, that ensemble movies, if done well are fun to watch.  But the obvious star of the movie and the one we identify the most is Judi Dench.  She and director Madden previously made Mrs. Brown and Shakespeare in Love for which she won her only Oscar.  She is absolutely charming here in her portrayal of a widow standing on her two feet again.  She and Maggie Smith (aka Dowager Countess Grantham and Professor McGonagall) have the most character growth in the film coming so far from where we first see them in the beginning.  It was quite touching to see it.

The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel is surprising in how good it is.  The screenplay, written by Ol Parker, has its emotional moments coming at key places that actually pushes the story forward.  The dialogues are witty with lots of laugh out loud moments.  However, my one big gripe was Dev Patel's character Sonny who has quite voluble dialogues to mouth.  For a guy in his early 20s, he sounds like he's going on 40.  No other young character in the film sounds like him.  I fear he's going to always be typecast in roles like this unless he does something drastic.

Moving to India is not an easy experience.  Trust me, I know.  But once you're here, it feels you never left and the feeling you get when you eventually know your way around.  The film managed to capture the essence of how you finally find your way and somehow belong.  

PS-I saw many people coming to watch the movie with their parents, which I thought was kind of sweet.  I myself brought my mom to see the film.  

Directed by John Madden; Screenplay by Ol Parker; Based on the novel, These Foolish Things, by Deborah Moggach; Cinematography by Ben Davis; Edited by Chris Gill; Music by Thomas Newman

Additional cast: Tena Desae, Lillete Dubey, Sid Makkar, Diana Hardcastle and Bhuvnesh Shetty.

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