The old people movie of 2012! The successful one that's going to finally make Hollywood appeal to old people! Who knew old people like watching movies about old people? Preferably British old people who are in Downton Abbey or Harry Potter. This is the perfect storm for old white people in terms of movie-making: It's got all of those weighty British actors that make you feel like you're seeing an important film. It's got the travelogue element. And it's got Maggie Smith giving pithy one-liners in grumpy Dowager Countess mode. This is basically old people porn.
Now, let me take off my cynical hat and judge the movie on its merits. The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel is an ensemble dramedy that follows a cast of geriatrics that are all dealing with three quarter life crises and decide to shake things up by packing up their belongings and follow a google ad to India for a stay at The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel for the Elderly and Beautiful.
Let's meet our cast: we've got an adorably racist (when will this trope die?) Maggie Smith forced to outsource her hip replacement to India; her Downton compatriot Penelope Wilton as a fussbudget and her sweet, doormat husband (Bill Nighy) who are escaping a future in a Life Alert rigged bungalow after their daughter's failed startup eats up their retirement fund; Tom Wilkinson as a gay judge who cracks one day at work and up and leaves his job; Judi Dench as a Evelyn, a recent widow and lifelong homemaker forced out of her flat to pay her deceased husband's debts; Madge (Celia Imrie), token horny old woman; Norman (Ronald Picup), token horny old man. They arrive in India, and would you know? It is not like the UK. In fact, it feels like the third world. Their hotel also is very much a work in progress. They are in fact its inaugural guests. Dev Patel plays the manic, ambitious innkeeper. Cartoonish might be the best adjective for his performance.
Each of our characters gets to confront their issues in an unfamiliar world in a fairly predictable manner. The sights are beautiful though. We never feel like we are entirely immersed in the country like in Slumdog Millionaire. Judi Dench gives a fine performance. Many of her film roles find her playing confident, steely, pillars of resolve. Here she is meek, a person at sea struggling for her bearings. It is a delight watching Evelyn relish the simple satisfaction of her first payday of her first real job.
Amid the current glut of movies and TV shows that expose the quarter life crises of pseudo children-adults moving back in with their parents, it is refreshing to watch a movie that deals with the struggles that accompany the retired. In a way, the two generations have a lot of similarities: moving from the working world to leisure mirrors the transition from school to workplace. What's universal is the search for purpose, meaning, and connection, and this is what the film attempts to grapple with, if not always successfully or originally.
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