Judi Dench, Maggie Smith: The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel review (Den of Geek)

Ryan Lambie

Judi Dench leads a starry British cast in John Madden’s comedy drama, The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel. Here’s Ryan’s review of a pleasant, undemanding film…  Published on Feb 16, 2012

 The filmmakers of the British Isles excel at making very specific types of film: horror flicks, realistic dramas and feel-good romantic comedies. With a name like The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, and featuring a glittering ensemble of the UK’s finest actors of a certain age, you can probably guess which category the subject of this review falls into.

 Displaying a similar lightness of tone as dependable British hits such as Love Actually and Four Weddings And A Funeral, Marigold Hotel is a pleasant, easy-going evening’s entertainment that delivers everything you could rightly expect of it. There are laughs. Arguments. Romance. A little bit of tragedy, a smattering of pathos, a sprinkling of poignancy. It’s undemanding and a tad predictable, but there’s nothing wrong with that – especially when the dialogue is as sparky as it often is here.

Overall, The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel is a perfectly watchable example of the kind of comedy drama fluff we British seem to make so well. It deals with potentially heavy topics – the onset of old age, past regrets, death – with a light touch (though it makes no mention of what fate awaits the elderly of Jaipur, who aren't blessed with the engorged bank balances of the film's WASP characters), and its predictable plot is elevated by a decent script, an engaging location and, most of all, a great cast.

 The film also deserves extra points for working in what appears to be an oblique reference to Rocky IV (“If she dies, she dies,” someone says) – now there’s something you don’t see in a British comedy drama very often.


Read the entire review:  http://www.denofgeek.com/movies/1247538/the_best_exotic_marigold_hotel_review.html