Rated PG-13 for language and sexual content

By Theresa Garcia
BEACON COLUMNIST

posted Jun 15, 2012 - 10:44:43am

It’s one thing to run away from home when you’re a teenager, but it’s another to try to leave your life behind completely as a senior citizen. However, as The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel teaches us, the problems we face don’t get easier with age. Our overbearing parents are replaced by our overbearing children and the urge to do something exciting and different with our lives never stops growing.

Best Exotic follows a group of elderly English strangers who are tired of being patronized by their children and doctors. So when they each stumble upon an ad for a luxurious retirement home in India, they jump at the chance to escape. After a delayed flight, crowded bus ride and their first tuk-tuk experience, they arrive at The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel: Home for the Elderly and Beautiful. But the hotel isn’t as pretty as it was in the pictures; it’s actually dusty and falling apart. The optimistic manager, Sonny (Dev Patel), who dreams of revamping the hotel in his father’s honor, convinces them to stay anyway. With nothing left to lose, they agree and begin to adapt to a culture completely different from their own.

The most refreshing thing about this film is that it's funny without relying too much on overly used stereotypes about old people. Sure, some of these characters have trouble operating computers and can be a bit racist, but they are more developed than that. These are seven distinct people who still have dreams and desires despite their ages. Each character has a goal in the film that he or she pushes to accomplish. And if you think this over-60 crowd is above flirting, cheating, and Kama Sutra, you’re wrong. In fact, that’s what some of these characters are all about.

Best Exotic also is packed with the most established elderly English actors in the business – most notably Judi Dench, Bill Nighy and Maggie Smith – and they don't disappoint. Dench, who probably hasn’t given herself a day off in more than 40 years, is sort of the leader of the bunch as Evelyn, the up-for-anything widow in search of some adventure. It’s her adventurous spirit that catches the attention of Douglas, played by Nighy, the silver fox of the film who acts as his usual quiet but charming self. Smith masters the role of Muriel, a grouchy old woman who doesn’t trust anyone foreign but needs to go to India for a hip replacement. Now surrounded by people who aren’t English, she is forced to get used to this new culture. Her role goes back and forth between hilarious and heartbreaking.

Although it is a great movie, The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel may be a hit-and-miss film with younger audiences because of the subject matter. But older crowds will certainly appreciate the storyline, which reminds us that just because someone’s hair is turning gray, they’re not dead yet.

Stars and Popcorn grade: 5 stars, 3 1/2 popcorn.

— Theresa is an undergrad at the University of Florida majoring in English with a focus in Film and Media Studies. Originally from Miami, she left her home town to study the art form she cherishes most. When Theresa isn’t out searching for a good movie to watch, she is either writing, studying or knitting.

Sponsored by Liebe Entertainment Group, Marketplace 8. Click here to see showtimes for The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel

— info@beacononlinenews.com

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