The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel

The Second Best Marigold Hotel, the latest movie from accomplished director John Madden is like visiting old friends if you saw the previous Marigold Hotel film. While there are times when this film can get on your nerves the performances of the talented cast carry the weight and because of that I give The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel three and a half buckets of Killer Korn out of five.













Let me just say this, the first Marigold Hotel film was adapted from a book by author Deborah Moggach. The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel was not adapted from a novel and that may be why it seems the movie loses its way early on. The movie starts off looking and sounding like an old sitcom. While trying to capitalize on the charm of the original film its sequel sadly doesn't do a very good job of that. Written by the same screenwriter of the first movie, Ol Parker tries to concoct a story out of whole cloth without the foundation of the novel this time around. Second Marigold suffers the same rudderless fate as The Godfather III and Think Like A Man Too. Thankfully that doesn't last too long and the movie finally gets moving. Sadly though you're then subjected to the tired storyline of the insecure boyfriend/fiancé, Dev Patel's Sonny Kapoor, when a good looking friend of his future wife, Tina Desai's Sunaina, comes back into town looking to make his own mark in the hotel industry. His supposed rival is Shazad Latif's Kushal, one of the new characters, but don't worry, thankfully all the original cast is back.

Judi Dench, Maggie Smith, Bill Nighy, Celia Imrie, Ronald Pickup, Diana Hardcastle, Fiona Mollison, and Lillete Dubey all reprise their roles again as well but they are also joined by Richard Gere as Guy Chambers and Tamsin Greig as Lavinia Beech. The story centers around the wedding between Sonny and Sunaina as well as Sonny and Maggie Smith's Muriel Donnelly attempts to expand their burgeoning niche hotel empire. In the first film Sonny seemed a charming, enterprising young man. This time around however, his act plays a little thin. There is nothing new about him and in fact it seems most of the characters take a step back. What you thought were solid relationships at the end of the first movie seem to fall apart in the second. Now granted you need to build a script, but weakening relationships only to strengthen them all over again is a tired formula and one The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel could have done without.

The look of the film however is absolutely exquisite. John Madden has a fantastic eye and Ben Smithard, his cinematographer this time around, picks up seamlessly where cinematographer Ben Davis left off. This film is lush in color and feel, regardless of the sets. The music, again by the talented Thomas Newman, was absolutely perfect. Like the movie it's a subtle yet lush score accented with authentic instruments that add flavor and color. It was a job well done. If you didn't see the first film don't worry, you don't need to see that film to get its sequel. In fact you may like this movie more if you don't see the first one but if you have then this movie will be more revisiting old friends than seeing something new. John Madden and company put forth a good attempt at a quality sequel but were hampered with a ridiculous script. Still though I would recommend it to those that have seen the first film and enjoyed the characters and I'll see you at the theater.