The story of a group of retired folk who decide to give up retirement villages for a life in India is an uplifting and entertaining movie for both young and old.
The best of British mature actors present here a truly ensemble piece of work with just the right measures of family friendly story and adult humour (It’s a 12A). The film opens with a montage introducing the main players in various situations that concern the elderly of today- including bereavement, retirement villages and endless babysitting. Each of our characters are unsatisfied with the prospect of what growing old in England means, and so each come across a promise of escape- and another youth- the Marigold Hotel near Jaipur, India. Not everyone is happy with relocating- bigoted Muriel “Get me an English doctor” Donnelly (Smith) reluctantly boards a plane to get a hip replacement she cannot afford to wait for in the UK.
What the group discover is bigger, louder and less civilised than they imagined- an overwhelming mass of colour, sound and people is what greets them in Jaipur- to the delight of some and the disgust of others. The hotel, run by enthusiastic but hopeless young man Sonny (a wonderful performance from Slumdog’s Dev Patel) is nowhere near as it is described in the brochure but despite their reservations they give the establishment, and the country, a chance to prove itself.
What ensues is the evolving of their personal, and professional lives. Grieving Evelyn (Dench) gets herself a job in a call centre, Muriel broadens her mind, and Graham (Wilkinson) is reunited with an adolescent lover. There are equal moments of brilliant comedy, tragic pathos and life changing decisions, and leaves us with its message- you can accept your lot, or you can strive to make it better.
