Nothing quite proves that you've launched yourself head-first into the annals of adulthood like choosing, of your own accord, to watch a movie starring seven people in their 60s and 70s talking about coming to grips with being in your 60s and 70s but here I find myself. I can't say no to you, Maggie Smith and Bill Nighy!
The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel is about seven older folks facing some of the various challenges of being an older folk. Smith's Muriel, a horrid racist, needs a hip replacement ASAP. Judi Dench's Evelyn is recently widowed after 40 years of marriage. Tom Wilkinson's Graham retired after a lifetime as a successful judge. Nighy's and Penelope Wilton's Douglas and Jean are a married couple who find themselves struggling for money after investing in their adult daughter's bust of a business. And Ronald Pickup's Norman and Celia Imrie's Madge are looking for love in all the wrong places (and right places and pretty much any place they find themselves in).
Through effective marketing, circumstance or lifelong longing, the group find themselves en route to the Best Exotic Marigold Hotel for the Elderly and Beautiful in India. What they find - a dilapidated building run by the energetic yet disorganized and poor Sonny (Slumdog Millionaire's Dev Patel). Each reacts in their own way: some embrace India and all it's glory, using the experience as a fresh start, while others seem intent on being miserable. Chief among the latter is Jean, a high-maintenance witch of a woman whose only joy is falling in love with Graham (before learning that he's gay, of course). Both India enthusiasts, Douglas and Evelyn make a connection themselves, while Muriel connects with a speechless servant girl (and a member of the lowest Indian caste). Sonny has his own issues, mostly involving his mother, who disapproves of both the hotel and his taste in girlfriends.
The heart of the group is Graham, who grew up in India, fell in love with a man there, and has been spending his life trying to get back. He and everyone else come out of their shells and have at least some semblance of a decent ending (well, for most).
The movie was fairly predictable and some of the "evil" characters were a little over-the-top in their evilness. Mostly, I'm thinking about Sonny's mother and Jean, neither of whom really had a redeeming quality. I also felt bad for Celia Imrie since she really didn't get a storyline at all. But still, the acting chops of the entire cast kept the movie fresh and enjoyable and so it was easy to look past some of the obvious/negative stuff.
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