Three stars. Rated PG, for mild profanity and sensuality
By Derrick Bang • Originally published in The Davis Enterprise, 3.6.15
In this particular case, “second
best” is ... merely OK.
It’s like visiting a friend you
haven’t seen for a few years, only to discover that the friend has changed. And
not for the better.
The set-up is familiar, and
therefore offers less of the first film’s delightful sense of discovery; the
subplots are more contrived, giving a sense, at times, that all concerned are
trying too hard; and Maggie Smith doesn’t get nearly as many of her deliciously
piquant one-liners (echoing those she also flings so readily on TV’s Downton
Abbey).
At 122 minutes, this sequel also
is a bit long, and drags in spots.
Fortunately, familiarity isn’t an
entirely bad thing. The entire cast has returned for this second outing, as
have writer/director John Madden and co-scripter Ol Parker. They’re all
seasoned pros, and while the ground on which they tread may be worn, they nonetheless
step with alacrity.
There’s no question that the
first Hotel’s success owes much to aging baby-boomers who tire of comic-book
movies; we also can point to similarly delightful “aging relic” characters in
recent films such as Quartet, Philomena, Pride and even the
aforementioned Downton Abbey. Frankly, it’s refreshing to spend time with
people who weren’t in diapers a mere decade ago.
That said, Madden and Parker
shrewdly hedge their bets by including the much younger Dev Patel, even more
familiar now, in the wake of his three-season run on HBO’s The Newsroom His
Sonny Kapoor continues to be the hilariously over-enthusiastic glue that binds
the residents of his Jaipur-based Exotic Marigold Hotel.
Patel also knows his way around a
well-timed line delivery, and Sonny remains much like the dinner guest who
invariably embarrasses himself, no matter what the conversational
circumstances, by going one ill-advised sentence over the edge.
But poor Sonny endures more than
his share of flustered setbacks in the second outing, and Patel struggles
gamely to navigate these abnormal waters. That he mostly succeeds has more to
do with his skill as an actor, than with the material with which he’s forced to
work.
And “forced” seems the operative
term. Much of the first film’s dynamic revolved around fish-out-of-water
tension: the need for ex-pat Brits to navigate this exotic and wholly alien
territory. Well, the territory has become comfortable, which means that Madden
and Parker have to pull new narrative tricks out of their hats ... and the
strain is noticeable.
Time has passed since the hotel’s
permanent guests — read: residents — arrived and bonded in the first film. The
newly single Douglas (Bill Nighy) has become a local guide for visiting
tourists, although his informative patter relies on scripted notes fed
clandestinely, via radio and an ear bud, by an easily distracted young
confederate.
Evelyn (Judi Dench) has parlayed
her business sense into a potentially lucrative arrangement with a fabrics start-up
company; the coquettish Madge (Celia Imrie) is juggling two wealthy and quite
eligible local gentlemen. Norman and Carol (Ronald Pickup and Diana Hardcastle)
are feeling their way through the unspoken rules of an exclusive relationship,
and Muriel (Maggie Smith) remains on hand to make catty remarks about it all.
Norman and Madge also have gone
into business together, trying to revive the nearby Viceroy Club: a fading
relic of the former British empire, unsurprisingly unable to keep up with the
times.
Sonny continues to make plans for
his impending marriage to the love of his life, Sunaina (Tina Desai), under the
watchful gaze of his authoritarian mother, Mrs. Kapoor (Lillete Dubey).
Alas, the ambitious Sonny can’t
be content with status quo. Determined to expand into a second location —
although we never see the “outpouring” of new guests that would necessitate
such a plan — he and Muriel travel to California, in order to meet investor and
lodging magnate Ty Burley (the always engaging David Strathairn). Their goal:
secure financing to help purchase an abandoned, run-down hotel back in Jaipur,
which has caught Sonny’s eye.
Burley is intrigued but cautious;
he conditions his support on a report to be filed by a clandestine observer
(read: spy) who will be sent to stay awhile at the original Exotic Marigold
Hotel, thereby observing Sonny’s management style in action.
Back in Jaipur, since we
subsequently get only two new clients at the hotel — aspiring novelist Guy
Chambers (Richard Gere) and the oddly youthful Lavinia Beech (Tamsin Greig),
checking out the place on behalf of her mother — the spy pretty much has to be
one of them, right?
That’s needlessly limiting. How
hard would it have been, to have tossed in a few more new faces, if only in the
background?
Sonny’s sycophantic efforts to
please Guy — convinced that he’s the “plant” — at the expense of poor,
overlooked Lavinia, slide into the realm of broad comedy (while encouraging
some particularly pungent remarks from Muriel). Gentler conflict comes from the
blossoming mutual attraction between Douglas and Evelyn, although neither seems
to know how to take the first step; Nighy and Dench gently, warily flirt in a
particularly endearing manner.
Elsewhere, Madge frequently
confesses her indecision — which suitor to choose? — to her solicitous and
observant driver, Babul (Rajesh Tailang).
Norman, meanwhile, fears that
some idle and highly inebriated chatter may have given an entirely wrong idea
to a local tuk-tuk taxi driver.
Perhaps the clumsiest plot
element, however, revolves around the introduction of Kush (Shazad Latif), a
friend of Sunaina’s brother. Kush, freshly arrived from the States, is a
dashing, oh-so-perfect interloper in whose shadow Sonny places himself: a guy
potentially capable of stealing Sunaina’s heart.
The problem is that Sunaina seems
oblivious to this dynamic, going so far as to take rather slinky dance lessons
from Kush. Heck, any reasonable guy would regard Kush as a threat ... and in
more ways than one, as the story progresses. Making Sunaina this insensitive is
an unpalatable stretch; turning Sonny into a jealous buffoon worsens the
situation.
This isn’t necessarily a bad
dynamic on its face; after all, awkward triangles have been the stuff of
romantic comedy for generations. But Sunaina’s clumsily inconsiderate behavior
goes against this film’s core tone, and it’s painful to watch Sonny become such
a jerk.
Gere and Greig are a similarly
awkward fit, neither of them wholly comfortable in these surroundings. It’s
actually a relief when Douglas’ ex, Jean (Penelope Wilton), shows up
unexpectedly, injecting the sort of credible, mildly snarky tension that we
expect from these characters, and this setting.
The location continues to be
enchanting and exotic, with vibrant surprises around every corner; we can’t
help being charmed by the juxtaposition of tuk-tuk taxies and gaily painted
elephants fighting trucks and bicycles for space on Jaipur’s overcrowded
highways. And as our ex-pat characters have become more familiar with the
vivacious colors and rhythms of this famed “pink city,” Madden and production
designer Martin Childs have obliged with crowded and merrily noisy street
markets, sumptuous banquet halls and architectural wonders such as Jaigarh
Fort, the Cenotaphs of the Kings, and a massive, landscape-hugging edifice that
isn’t the Great Wall of China.
The approach of a traditional
Indian wedding offers an excuse for some lavishly exotic dancing, which both
Desai and Patel embrace with élan ... reminding us of the latter’s similarly
smooth moves at the end of 2008’s Slumdog Millionaire.
But I’m less satisfied with a
subplot involving Muriel, which undercuts the film’s finale: a bit too dour and
“real life” for this otherwise larkish atmosphere. It feels like a sidebar that
wandered in from an entirely different film.
Individually, this and other
issues cited above are minor, and probably won’t bother viewers content to bask
in the collective star wattage of this talented and thoroughly delightful cast.
Collectively, though, these scripting and directorial decisions can’t help
reminding us that this film’s predecessor was much better constructed and,
therefore, more endearing.
Sequels to successful romantic
comedies often seem dictated more by studio greed, than by narrative necessity. Arthur begat Arthur 2; Bridget Jones’s Diary prompted Bridget Jones: The
Edge of Reason. In both cases, the sequel is best forgotten, lest it taint the
memory of the respective original. This Second Best Exotic Hotel isn’t quite that
disappointing ... but it also doesn’t leave us with the warm-hearted buzz we
felt back in 2011, after seeing the first one.
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