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.
 |
| Able — if only for a moment — to forget the various issues plaguing his personal and professional life, Sonny (Dev Patel, center) reflects on the warm bond he has established with Muriel (Maggie Smith, at his immediate right). |
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.
