‘The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel’ Movie Review

The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel is based on the novel These Foolish Things by Deborah Moggach and follows a group of British retirees, who decide to take their retirement in India, more specifically the newly restored Marigold Hotel. Seduced by the wonderful advertisements professing the luxury of the “Best Exotic Marigold Hotel,” the retirees arrive to find the hotel only a shell of what it used to be.

Of course its manager, Sonny Kappor (Dev Patel) has exceptional plans for the hotel and soon convinces the group to stay at the hotel for the time being. And though this “palace” is not at all what they expected to find in India, the group soon get exposed to the most unexpected experiences and discover that you can still live life fully even after retirement.

When I saw the trailer for The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, I knew I had the see it. It had a great cast including Judi Dench, Bill Nighy, Penelope Wilton, Celia Imrie, Ronald Pickup, Tom Wilkinson, Maggie Smith and of course Dev Patel mentioned above. It also seemed like a funny and sweet movie, just the way I like them. The bad news is that pretty much all the best part of the film appear in the trailer, which made me a bit disappointed with the rest of the film.

In terms of story, it started off really well and characters seemed to be moving forward by getting to India and finding their new path, but somewhere in the middle it stalled a bit. Some of it could have been cut out to keep the momentum going. Thankfully, the story wrapped up nicely and I particularly enjoyed one of the last shot featuring Bill Nighy.

I do have to mention though that the strength of this film is almost entirely on its wonderful cast. There is something so true and natural about their interactions with each other that it made for a fun watch. I particularly loved Bill Nighy, who had some really great moments, and Tom Wilkinson, whose character had my favorite storyline.

And while I didn’t love the movie as much as I expected to, which I will blame on my expectations based on the trailer, it’s certainly worth a watch if you enjoy this type of film or are looking for a sweet movie to relax over the weekend.

The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel is out to limited theaters today May 4th. You can watch the trailer here.

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