By Chris Obertelli, stud.cand.mag, English
A comedy about the lives of middle-aged and retired Brits. That’s
what the kid’s today want! And just to make it interesting, let’s chuck
in a couple of sexagenarian love stories and set it in India!
It doesn’t immediately sound like a box office winner, does it? When I
heard the premise myself I was a tad sceptical, but as both a Brit and a
student of English, I was willing to give it a go at the behest of my
Anglophile girlfriend. What sold The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel
for me however was the cast. The older characters are a collection of
some of the finest names in British film and TV of the last 30+ years
that even the most English-indifferent Dane must be aware of to some
degree including Dame Judi Dench (James Bond), Maggie Smith (Harry Potter), Bill Nighy (Love, Actually), Celia Imrie (Bridget Jones), Tom Wilkinson (The Full Monty) and Penelope Wilton (Pride and Prejudice). This distinguished cast is supported by Dev Patel (Slumdog Millionaire)
playing a similar, yet much more comedic supporting role, as his
breakthrough role in a similar against-the-odds love story which runs
parallel to the main story as the self-styled manager of the titular
hotel. What all these people are doing in India is quickly explained so
we can get on with the meat of the story, and the reasons are certainly
diverse. This is not merely a case of Brits on holiday and the standard
‘what-do-you-mean-there-ain’t-no-chips?’, fish out of water tale. While
there are obviously scenes of linguistic and cultural confusion as the
stuffy British demeanour is put to the test amongst the noise and colour
of Jaipur, the real heart of the ensemble comedy-drama lies in the
interaction between the characters themselves.
India serves merely as a picturesque backdrop for the exploration of
the characters in all their glory and disgrace. The ageing lothario
battling loneliness, the widow looking for her place in the world and a
purpose in life, the ex-judge haunted by his past, the bankrupt couple
on the verge of ruin and the xenophobic pensioner in India for a hip
replacement.
What really works in the film is that it refuses to descend into
overly-sentimental melodrama as many British comedies have a tendency to
do, starting well with the jokes coming thick and fast only to take its
foot off the gas and get serious/emotional in the final act. Granted,
the last half hour of The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel does enter familiar territory, but it takes an unexpected back road to get there and doesn’t dwell too long.
I hope I am not gushing with overly-sycophantic, patriotic pride in
my praise, but while you cannot fault any of the performances, the real
backbone of the film, special mention has to go to Tom Wilkinson for his
tragic portrayal of a mild-mannered man facing his past with the kind
of under-stated, Shakespearean pathos Laurence Olivier would no doubt
have approved of. On the more comedic side, you have Maggie Smith lying
on a hospital bed in a corridor, looking at a black doctor and
commenting, in a thick cockney accent, that no matter how hard he scrubs
the colour won’t come out. This obnoxious racism unsurprisingly leads
to a third-act redemption, but it is the fact that it is she, the
cultured, classical actress, such a darling of stage and screen with two
Oscars to her name, who is saying it that makes this moment so funny.
You loathe her for her ignorance and yet you want to see more. Sending
this character to India feels like some form of delicious payback for
all the bile she has regurgitated in her opening scenes. A bigot now
surrounded by those she fears, where she is the foreigner.
India is shot to look like an exotic wonderland, and while this is a
joy to behold, the social problems of India are all but invisible. A few
street urchins dot the background and a couple of extended scenes
between Maggie Smith and an untouchable who cleans the hotel are all we
get. While the film is a character piece, it could have been interesting
to expand on this, contrasting the opulent private club frequented by
Imrie’s character, a symbol of Britain’s continued financial dominance
despite Mountbatten having left decades before, with the harsh realities
for many in post-colonial India. That said, The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel does take an interesting look at the role India plays in the 21st
century, with call centres for British companies enclosed in glass and
steel contrasting with the run-down semi-ruin of the titular hotel. Had
these areas been highlighted a little more in even one of the film’s
many interwoven strands, it could have elevated The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel
to being as much an interesting and thought-provoking film as it is an
entertaining one, while at the same time avoiding the aforementioned sin
of turning comedy into commentary.
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