The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel (2011)

The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel (2011)

Some of England’s best actors welcome you to this sweet and genuine meditation on old age

7.0

Movie

United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom
English, Hindi
Comedy, Drama
2011
JOHN MADDEN
Bill Nighy, Celia Imrie, Dev Patel
124 min

What it's about

British retirees travel to India to take up residence in what they believe is a newly restored hotel. Less luxurious than its advertisements, the Marigold Hotel nevertheless slowly begins to charm in unexpected ways as the residents find new purpose in their old age.

The take

The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel invites us to an earnest meditation on old age and change. The film centers on a group of British retirees traveling to the titular hotel in India, in hopes of a good retirement. The group cast is an excellent choice: prominent names from British movies and television line the cast, and it’s a pleasure to see them act alongside each other with equal screen time and their own detailed plotlines. Their plotlines inspire empathy towards different struggles that the elderly face: finding love again, dealing with accumulated debt, and handling loss. All of these are tough, but especially when you feel your time has run out. The best of these plotlines are the ones that acknowledge loss but still persist through accepting changing circumstances and actively going for one's desires.

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