The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel

The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel was a surprise hit in 2012, leveraging the "oldies" out of their armchairs and into the cinemas in droves: the film returned around 15 times its modest $10M budget. Now three years later comes the sequel – the amusingly titled "Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel", and its much of the same again. After all, why break a winning formula? Set eight months after the original, and with an enviable occupancy record, expansion is on the cards for the Marigold Hotel. Sonny (Dev Patel) and Muriel (Maggie Smith) head to San Diego in search of investment funding from the US company Evergreen Inc, with the view to expand the franchise into a second property and beyond. There is interest from the owner Ty Burley (David Strathairn, probably best known as the head of Treadstone in the Bourne films) but that interest also brings the threat of a hotel inspector making Sonny (now back in India) suspicious of every new face. Richard Gere's appearance as a wannabe novelist sparks a particularly frantic burst of sucking-up, the farce surrounding these scenes being very reminiscent of the famous Fawlty Towers episode.

Sonny and Sunaina (Tina Desai) are to be married, and the storyline compounds the stresses associated with the business expansion with the stresses associated with the rituals and relationships surrounding the nuptials. Adding fuel to the fire is the unwelcome intervention – in both love and business – of a rich and good-looking family friend and rival (Shazad Latif), bringing the couple's relationship to breaking point. In a slew of secondary story lines, the rest of the ensemble cast comprising Bill Nighy, Judi Dench, Ronald Pickup, Celia Imrie, Diana Hardcastle (sidenote: wife of Tom Wilkinson) and Penelope Wilton pursue love and happiness against the romantic backdrop of Jaipur.

It is hard to actively dislike this film. Like the first film, and like similar recent films such as The Hundred Foot Journey, the esteemed cast demands your attention from the off and the lush colours of India (strikingly enhanced by the job of Evelyn – Judi Dench – in fabric procurement) wrap around you and warm you like a favourite cardigan. The script entertains, with good humour throughout and a smattering of laugh-out-loud lines. In terms of the acting, there is nothing like a Dame and both Dench and Smith are once again excellent, displaying nuanced and – particularly in Smith's case – very moving performances. Bill Nighy (after the strikingly different performance in "Pride") is back into reliable Bill Nighy acting territory again! New to the cast in this outing is one of my favourite comedy actresses Tamsin Greig ("Episodes") and Richard Gere, looking more silver-fox than ever.

But a particular joy for me was Ronald Pickup, celebrating 50 years in the business (after a debut in Dr Who!) who turns in a stellar performance as the besotted but slightly neurotic Norman Cousins.

Another star of the film is India itself. Having had the opportunity to travel extensively, I have never been particularly drawn to India: but this film does more for the Indian Tourist Board than a host of travel brochures ever could. Jaipur looks breath-taking – who knew they had a "Great Wall of China"? – and I may need to reconsider my future travel itinerary.

John Madden ("Mrs Brown", "Shakespeare in Love") directs again, with Thomas Newman scoring.

Any sequel will naturally be compared against its original and, whilst good, this is no "Empire Strikes Back". The film tries to partition itself into the different stages of the wedding preparations, but this becomes rather forced and irritating, particularly since the whole wedding storyline, and the mining of Sonny's jealous streak, gets a bit tiresome. I yearned to be left alone with more time for the quieter and more subtle love story lines permeating the rest of the film.

The script also tends to overly labour the 'you're old so you're about to die' angle in a manner that seems at times to be rather patronising.

But in summary, if you enjoyed the original then you won't find the sequel to be much of a disappointment.

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I have such a huge affection for the first film, it's so warm, captivating and funny. The follow up had huge shoes to fill, and for the most part it does. I founds the first thirty minutes a little pedestrian, but after that it opened up and turned into a beautiful film. It's very emotionally charged, puts you in a hugely reflective state and really draws you in. It terms of acting it was never going to fail was it? There is a host of stellar acting going on, Maggie, Judi, Celia etc are all glorious, but this time I was hooked on Bill Nighy's character, he's just fabulous.

I applaud this film for capitalising on the more mature acting talents out there, even though the second offering focuses slightly more on the youngsters, who are also brilliant, fans of Toast of London will recognise Clem Fandango!!

An excellent film that makes me desperate for a third. BTW Richard Gere has no right to still be that handsome!

9/10

...but managed pretty well.

There's a terrible risk with producing a sequel to a unique, quirky and successful movie. For want of a better cliché, it's flogging a dead horse.

This film confronted that risk and trounced it soundly. I was wondering how the heck the producers would manage it, and went to the cinema expecting to be disappointed at best and mildly annoyed at worst. But no. I left uplifted, happy and feeling as though I had wasted neither the time nor the ticket price.

The characters continue to develop. New characters are introduced but are generally given the chance to have their own back stories as well. The film genuinely manages to give the impression of being a candid look at the lives of a disparate bunch of people - their interactions, hopes, fears, prejudices and so on are all laid bare for us, as before, yet somehow it still manages to feel fresh.

There are real, proper laughs, some fantastic one-liners and some very well done moments of pathos. It's beautifully filmed and the big set-pieces are a delight.

In short it steps into the large boots of its predecessor, and fills them nicely. Go and see it.

I was really anxious to see this film since we loved the first one but, as always with sequels, I had low expectations. I was not disappointed in any way, shape or form. There are a lot of negative reviews by people who don't understand the human brain. A sequel will NEVER be the same as the first time you experienced a great film. You already know the characters, general story, etc. and there is no room for surprises. What you can hope for is that the journey is continued and presented in a manner that entertains and stays true to the first film. My wife and I discussed the film afterward and we both agreed that there were components of "The Second" that were actually better than the first film. We got to know most of the characters better, we got to see Indian culture in much more depth and the story was much more involved than the first film. Overall, I have to say that this sequel was the best I have ever seen. It stayed true to the characters and most importantly to the Best Exotic Marigold Hotel.

Many cinematic releases of late have excelled at contaminating us with dross, puerile swearing and mindless violence. Here then is an oasis of colour in both settings and characters. The first film was a heart-warming experience, which reacquainted viewers with what good cinema should be about. The sequel is equally as splendid - in my opinion, and judging by my fellow cinema-goers, by all of those attendees to. No violence, no swearing, no lavatorial humour. Gosh, what is the world coming to? Just dollops of old-fashioned (and I am not ashamed of using the term), gentle humour. The film is chock-full of some of our (British, that is) top-notch thespians and boy, do they knock anything our Yankee brethren could conceive in a million years into a cocked hat. Okay,Richard Gere pops up as the token 'American', but even he is out-acted by the British and Indian cast ten times over. For two hours of sheer entertainment, with a feel-good factor tipping the scales, then you will be hard pushed to beat this fine example.