Film review: The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel

Tina Desai, left, and Dev Patel in The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel. Fox Searchlight Films

The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel

Director: John Madden

Starring: Judi Dench, Maggie Smith, Bill Nighy, Dev Patel, Richard Gere

Two stars

If you make a movie sequel that doesn't quite measure up to the original, well ... OK. But putting the words Second Best in the title? That's just asking to be compared.

That's not to say The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel won't appeal to the fans who flocked to the first film. And it's hard to quibble over the value of spending two hours with Judi Dench and Maggie Smith. Indeed, Smith's rant over the state of lukewarm tea in the United States alone is worth the price of a ticket.

But much of the film feels like a hastily arranged class reunion, where you show up but have less to talk about than the last time you were all together. You still have fun but, like a cup of lukewarm tea, it’s far from the best.

The sequel begins in Jaipur, India, a few years after the British retirees made their home in the Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, where they discovered that although the place wasn’t as posh as advertised, it was full of life – and life lessons.

Sonny (Dev Patel), the ambitious and talkative co-manager, is his hyperactive self, taking roll call every morning of the elderly residents who’ve settled into various routines.

Widowed Evelyn (Dench) is a textile buyer for an overseas company. Her would-be beau, Douglas (Bill Nighy), is trying to summon the courage to declare his love while serving as the least-qualified tour guide in India. There’s romance-starved Madge (Celia Imrie) dallying with two rich suitors. Norman (Ronald Pickup), the former playboy, is seeking another kind of happiness. And there’s Muriel (Smith), now Sonny’s co-manager, keeping him as grounded as she can.

The film opens with Muriel and Sonny on a road trip to a California retirement company they hope will fund Sonny’s franchise dreams, which begin with buying a second hotel.

Back in India, Sonny is too obsessed with business to pay attention to his impending wedding – an obvious source of frustration to his fiancée, Sunaina (Tina Desai).

He is so consumed that when novelist Guy Chambers (Richard Gere) shows up, Sonny is convinced he’s the inspector, incognito, the retirement company said it would send to check out the place. Much stress ensues.

As Chambers, Gere floats through the film without much effort – and his sudden attraction to Sonny’s mother (Lillete Dubey) is not very convincing. Also perturbing is a subplot involving a sad fate for one of the characters. It’s strongly hinted at and then dropped, or rendered so subtle you wonder if mid-shoot the filmmakers changed their minds.

The climax is the wedding scene and it’s great fun.

Patel seems to be having a ball and it is infectious. If only the rest of the film were as appealing it wouldn’t feel second best.