The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel

Some days we need a feel good film.  On days where we can see no traces of the sun's existence, when the wind is no longer refreshing, but a gusting tormentor.  Days when we wake up and the house is just not as warm as we would like it to be, and we find ourselves lightly shivering as we try to operate the devices that will bring us our coffee or tea.  It may be on a day like this when our bare foot finds a fresh hairball on the floor.  Or, it could be the kind of day when the bills are due and you cannot remember which account needed which password.  Days like this need a feel good movie.  They can bring us companionship, allow us to temporarily forget about aches and pains, and can just aid in putting a positive spin on a day of the grey dreary.

Such a movie that is perfect for accomplishing this is The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, a British dramatic comedy that came out in limited release in May of 2012 and can be found on Netflix.  The film takes the concept of the outsourcing of services to a ludicrous level, as it is basically about a retirement hotel in India that will allow people to ship off the elderly for a reasonable price, and have them dealt with by someone else.  While it is a concept that is absurd down to the core, it is pulled off so well in a touching movie that I will eagerly recommend it to every single person I meet.

The movie starts off by showing us the lives of a number of seniors who are in transition stages of their lives, facing the reality of their age, their health, and their finances.  They all end up embarking to India to live at The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, where they can enjoy their retirement in luxury.  Upon arriving at the exotic accommodations, they find that perhaps it is not as lavish as they were lead to believe.

This oddball concept of the movie allows a great tale that combines both fish out of water aspects and an old dog learning new tricks.  In this new environment, the characters, who still have brought a lot of their own personal baggage with them, must learn how to deal with this foreign environment where nothing resembles anything they have ever known.  Some are terrified of what lurks beyond the walls of the hotel, and others are almost re-born as they experience exploration, adventure, and life once again.

You will not get anything out of the box with this film, and it will not push the boundaries of any genre.  It follows a formula fairly closely, and is fairly predictable.  However, it gets you so connected to the characters that even though you can foresee how things may turn out, you still find yourself clinging to the outcomes.  One way that it does this is through the brilliant cast which consists of names like Judi Dench, Tom Wilkinson, Maggie Smith, and Bill Nighy.  They all embody their characters so well that we see them as people and start gaining some solid empathy for their situation.  The acting is also helped by the wonderful script of the film, which brings about some great conversations and many a great joke. 

While it pokes fun at the outsourcing relationship nations have with India (and a comedic irony that Judi Dench ends up working in an Indian call centre), it does not focus on showing the country in any kind of depressed light.  We are captive to beautiful scenary and locations that show a majesty that this land has to offer.  The colours and the culture are painted in a great light, but it also does take a moment to recognize some of the darker aspects of the culture.  It only scratches the surface of that, though, because remember, this is a feel good movie.

The only moment when the movie struggle for me was near the very end.  Perhaps I just felt it was almost too clean and cookie cutter how one element of the story got tied up.  But, at the same time, there were some very passionate and emotional story lines reaching their crux as well, which ended up diverting my attention from the one thing I did not like and reminding me that five other things were happening that were causing some serious movement within my soul.

If you have Netflix, you are wasting your subscription money if you have not watched this movie.  If you don't have Netflix, it is very worth the money spent on a rental.  It is designed for the days where the factors of life are not adding up to what we want.  Its purpose it to give us a break from all of the mundane that piles up around us and bring us respite when our hearts are sitting low in our chest.  So on those types of days, stop focusing on the stuff around you, and outsource your problems to The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel because it will leave a smile in your heart.  That's why it is perfect for those downer days, as it will lift you up and perhaps give you a boost of energy to continue.  As the last line of the movie states, 'everything will be alright in the end.  And if it's not alright, then trust me, it's not yet the end.'

Rating - 3.5 out of 4 stars