Film “Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel” lacks romance

By Riaz Mamdani
Staff Writer

Second best by a large margin, “The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel” is a fruitless sequel to an ill-fated comedy.

Directed by John Madden, “The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel” is a disappointing sequel to the film “The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel.” Featuring artificial character development and a rambling script, “The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel” fails to muster any entertainment.

The film begins in San Diego where Sonny (Dev Patel) is pitching his idea of expanding his Marigold Hotel franchise to a group of American investors.

With only a single remaining vacancy, Sonny runs into a rooming predicament with the arrival of British tourists Guy (Richard Gere), Lavania (Tamsin Greig), Evelyn (Judy Dench), and Douglas (Bill Nighy), who ultimately end up assisting Sonny and his fiancée on their expansionist quest.

Despite the seemingly straightforward plot, the film is complete with dozens of developed subplots about the characters backgrounds and past lives. However, Madden fails to connect these various subplots, and the film itself never becomes a cohesive and satisfying whole, resulting in a sense of incompleteness throughout the film.

“The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel” features a very talented cast, but due to a contrived script and listless direction, characters like Lavania, Guy and even Sonny are underdeveloped and one-dimensional. This lack of depth seen in each of the characters results in limited investment by the viewer in the plot and the actual characters themselves.

Another disappointing aspect of the film is the artificial romance between Evelyn and Douglas. Throughout the entire film, the unconsummated relationship between the duo is immature to the point of annoyance. The pair continually makes furtive glances at each other without ever acting on their feelings as most adults would.

The film is also impaired by the many shabby and ramshackle sets that it is filmed in. Although the film is set in India, a developing country, it is no excuse for the decaying and cheap sets combined with fake props that give the film an essense of amateurism.

Overall, “The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel” is impaired by its insipid plot, weak script and one-dimensional characters.

“The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel” is rated PG and is now playing in theaters nationwide.