Dinner and a Movie, Teri Bayus

Dinner and a Movie: Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel a Fun Romp

122056_oriBy Teri Bayus

In an industry that values car chases, explosions, gratuitous sex and pandering to a younger demographic, it is wonderful to encounter a film that speaks to the spark of life no matter what your age.
Through vibrant images, magnificent acting and exceptional storytelling, “The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel,” reminds that life is an adventure, regardless of your age and the only limits are the ones we place on them.
Director John Madden returns with the crumbling ruins that are the Best Exotic Marigold Hotel in Jaipur, India. The results will please viewers who enjoyed the first outing, with Maggie Smith, Judi Dench, and Penelope Wilton on hand again with witty repartee, with the notable exception of a missing Tom Wilkinson and the addition of Richard Gere, who grows more handsome everyday.
The plot: Sonny Patel returns as the highly unlikely successful proprietor of the Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, who is forced to find ways of expanding his rewarding hotel chain for the elderly and beautiful once the occupancy of his first building has reached capacity.
With the help of his trusted and self-loathing business partner, Muriel Donnelly (Smith), the two embark to the United States to meet with Ty Burley a successful hotel chain CEO (David Straitharin). With the warning of an investigator coming to the hotel to judge investment potential and the craziness of the wedding between Sonny and his beautiful bride Sunaina (Tina Desai) impending, Sonny must manipulate the arrival of a potential rival and childhood friend of Sonny and Sunaina, Kushal (Shazad Latif), a love-seeking investigator, Guy Chambers (Gere), a tuk tuk hit man, and the determined dreams of the first hotel’s customers.
A pun, which is never explicitly highlighted in this film, is its name: the Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel. Is it merely the second in the chain, or second best and not as good as the first? Either way it was fun night at the movies.

Teri Bayus can be reached at: or follow her writings and ramblings at: www.teribayus.com. Bayus is also the host of “Taste Buds,” a moving picture rendition of her reviews shown on Charter Ch. 10. Dinner and a Movie is a regular feature of Tolosa Press.