Second best in title only, this sequel to the surprise sleeper hit of some years ago is superior to the original and embellishes and endows its core characters with a much more interesting set of stories.
Sonny (Dev Patel) under the tutelage of Muriel Donnelly (Maggie Smith) has made such a success of the best exotic Marigold Hotel that he wants to expand. He has his eye on another Jaipur property but needs a cash partner to proceed so he ventures to America and a meeting with a hotel magnate.
Back home, he mistakes a guest for an inspector for the entrepreneur, is devastated that his old friend wants to cut in on his action and is of the perception that this pal has designs on his fiancé.
Further, he is conflicted when his mother is wooed by the inspector.
Meanwhile, the surviving guests of the original film are going through some emotional turmoils of their own.
Douglas (Bill Nighy) pines like a puppy for Evelyne (Judi Dench) who embarks on an emboldened new career as a fabrics and design purchaser for a big European company.
Douglas’ ex-wife (Penelope Wilton) has arrived to officially ask for a divorce.
Norman and Carol (Ronald Pickup and Diana Hardcastle) are going through commitment phobia and Madge (Celia Imre) is torn between two sugar daddies.
There is no denying that watching these luvvies play out the peccadilloes in one of India’s most colourful cities is a layback majeure – the best of British with a dash of Bollywood thrown in.
The casting of Richard Gere as the mistaken inspector is a misstep – I think a better choice would have been David Strathairn who appears as the money man Sonny goes to. Straithairn’s wooing of Sonny’s mother, played by the beautiful, graceful and flinty Lilette Dubey would have been something to behold.
There will be much written and said about what the film is not and what it could have been, it’s the cross the sequel has to bear, but overall, THE SECOND BEST EXOTIC MARIGOLD HOTEL is what it is – a reunion of characters played by popular actors who have an inbuilt cosy factor.