The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel

Directed by John Madden
Written by Ol Parker
Based on the novel by Deborah Moggach
Starring:  Judi Dench, Maggie Smith, Bill Nighy, Penelope Wilton and Richard Gere
Certificate: PG
Running Time: 122 min

Back in 2012 I was delighted with the story of The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel and the original film certainly found a place in my heart of the films that I had thoroughly enjoyed, with its superb cast list, including Judi Dench and Maggie Smith.

Now three years later several of the original cast return to bring is the continuing story with The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, with the hotel filling up and only one room left and two guests arriving, the time has come for Sonny (played by Dev Patel) to think about expanding to open a second hotel.

Add to this the stress of organising his wedding to the love of his live Sunaina (played by Tina Desai) all is a bit of a handful for Sonny and Muriel (played by Maggie Smith) as they try to expand the business only to go up against old friend Kushal (played by Shazad Latif).

Director John Madden and writer Ol Parker have returned to the helm of The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel and the same charm that the first film had in 2012 is still there, as we now know the characters there is no need for any lengthy introductions, which allows the films to start moving quickly.

Like the first film, there are several funny moments that certainly had me laughing with the rest of the cinema audience, although I do have to say that with its PG rating and not a 12A rating of the first movie, there aren’t those few risqué moments that the 2012 film had.

With such a great British cast in the movie, having Richard Gere introduced certainly seems be a great way to bring the film to the American audiences, saying that though, the older members of the cinema audience certainly gave some “ooo’s” and gasps when Gere walked on to the screen.

The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel is one of those that does have you thinking about your twilight years, I did actually did find myself feeling emotional towards the end of the film with Maggie Smiths character and her voice over.

Although the film perhaps isn’t as good as the first one, it’s still an enjoyable film to watch and to see how those loveable characters are getting up, we certainly get to see much more of their life now they have spent years in the hotel.

The use of colour in the film is nicely done, specially in the celebrations for Sonny and Sunaina, the soundtrack is also perfectly suited for the movie as well, with a good sound mix on surround sound and music, which never goes over the voices of the cast, so none of those moments trying to hear what people have said.

As with the 2012, this may not be suited for those very young audiences, but for older audiences, it’s an enjoyable film to watch, it really didn’t feel like is was on for two hours to me, I enjoyed every moment of it.

The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel is a great film for a night out without all the blood, gore and special effects laden films that we get so much of these days, don’t be surprised if we see a Third Best Exotic Marigold Hotel coming to our cinema screens sooner or later, you just never know.

Karen Woodham

Karen Woodham is the founder and owner of the Blazing Minds. She is also a Cinema reviewer and works with RealD 3D reviewing the latest 3D releases and IMAX, she has also had several articles published in various publications including the first edition of SFW Magazine. In 2015 she became an Award Winning Blogger and also has her website listed as one of the UK’s Top 10 Film Blogs.

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