In May 2012, on the same weekend that The Avengers debuted, The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel also hit theaters, serving as an unintentional counterpoint. Like that Marvel movie, Marigold Hotel was a supersized gathering of stars—mostly respected English actors of a certain age, including Tom Wilkinson, Judi Dench, Bill Nighy and Maggie Smith—except that rather than trying to save the planet, they were mostly concerned with saving what little time they had left, negotiating the aches, pains and regrets of getting older. Although Marigold Hotel was more than a touch too silly and sappy, it was cheering to see that in an era of record-annihilating comic book blockbusters, movies geared to other audiences could still be hits.
Unfortunately, Marigold Hotel’s sequel bears a lot of the same follow-up problems that befall superhero films and other blockbuster franchises. Too many characters to juggle; it artificially raises all stakes; it repeats a lot of the same themes of the first film; never quite justifies its existence beyond making more money—all in all, you’d be better off re-watching The Dark Knight Rises (2012).
John Madden returns to direct; similarly, The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel reunites the original cast while adding a few new faces. (The notable absence is Wilkinson, whose Graham Dashwood died in the first film. The actor’s restrained poignancy would have gone a long way to helping mitigate this sequel’s squishy tone.) With the Best Exotic Marigold Hotel now a success, Sonny (Dev Patel) and his business partner Muriel (Smith) consider expanding their modest empire, eyeing a second property in Jaipur. After meeting with potential investors in San Diego, Sonny and Muriel prepare for the arrival of a mysterious hotel inspector, whose review could make or break their plan. Soon, the handsome Guy Chambers (Richard Gere) sets foot on the property, arousing Sonny’s suspicion: This must be the inspector disguising his true identity by claiming to be a divorced man wanting to find a little quiet time to finally write his novel.
With its gentle charms and undemanding storyline, the 2012 original tweaked the standard westerner-goes-to-exotic-foreign-locale narrative through the strength of its performances and by acknowledging the sometimes-contentious relationship between the U.K. and India. (For some of Marigold Hotel’s greying characters, traveling to Jaipur meant returning to a childhood home that’s radically changed in the interim.) Mortality and the possibility of fresh beginnings remain at the forefront of Second Best, but the novelty of the setup has drifted away.
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