The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel

Audiences really warmed to The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel and its success seemed to spawn a plethora of films opportunistically aimed at the 40+ demographic. So, no wonder the sequel, The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, is now hitting our screens. I’m sure they hope we read it as it being the second movie rather than being the second best movie, which let’s face it, sequels usually are.

Fortunately in this case, the sequel is just as enjoyable as the original, although they’re no doubt preaching to the converted. If you liked the first one with its combination of veteran British actors being very British in their Indian surrounds, and the well-meaning charms of hotel proprietor, Sonny (Dev Patel – Slumdog Millionaire, The Newsroom), then no doubt you’ll be sufficiently entertained with this outing. Director John Madden, who gave us the first film, works his magic once again and there’s a crowd-pleasing Bollywood dance sequence towards the end. 

This time, Sonny wants to expand his line of ‘hotels for the elderly and beautiful’ by buying another one with the help of American investments, but his plans look like they might be thwarted. Dev Patel is of course English but his Indian Sonny, with his charming if over-the-top mannered ways, is on full display when he tries to give Richard Gere the star treatment after he thinks he’s a hotel inspector. This means treating other new guest, Lavinia Beech (Tamsin Greig), very shabbily. 

In the meantime, the old favourites reprise their roles – Dame Judi Dench and Bill Nighy as a couple of people in the sunset of life who are afraid to try love again, Maggie Smith as the cranky but soft-hearted Mrs. Donnelly, and Celia Imrie as the man-hungry Madge. There are smiles and also poignancy as these familiar characters continue their journey in their adopted country.

The film is told in three chapters as Sonny prepares to marry Sunaina (Tena Desae) – The Engagement Party, The Family Party, and The Wedding, and somehow you get the feeling there could even be a Third Best Exotic Marigold Hotel.

by Vicki Englund