Feelgood flick for the Saga set

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Resolved to make the most of their autumn years, a selection of Britain’s finest character actors set off for deepest India. And, like the romanticised golden age of the Raj, the Brits find that life in the fading grandeur of The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel is a largely genteel experience, where the greatest threat to one’s peace of mind is an overly-hot curry. The proverbial fly in the ointment comes in the form of the hotel manager’s mother, who is determined to sell the loss-making enterprise and see her wayward son safely ensconced in an arranged marriage.
On the plus side, The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel boasts a game and lively cast, who really do their best with the relentlessly safe and inoffensive characters. Particular praise is due to Maggie Smith, as a cantankerous former serving-woman travelling to India in the hope of a cheap hip-replacement. Smith is the closest thing in the cast to Catherine Tate’s foul-mouthed ‘Gran’, an acerbic presence the film sorely needs.
Tom Wilkinson is also enjoyable as a mild-mannered retired barrister, concealing his true motivations for visiting India and bringing a note of wistful regret to the production, as well as the film’s only genuine moment of tragedy.
However, these spirited efforts cannot distract from the impression that The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel is a rather shallow and superficial film, which constructs a number of uncomfortable and condescending stereotypes of both old people and Indians.
Most troubling is the latter, with a preponderance of scenes that show the paternal and high-minded Brits teaching the locals how to do things properly. Judi Dench gets a job in call centre, teaching the Indian workers how to speak on the phone, Tom Wilkinson gives an impromptu cricket lesson to some adorable street-urchins, and Maggie Smith eventually gets a grip on the hotel’s baffling accounts.
In the days of Empire, T.E. Lawrence described what he saw as the British love of “policing other men’s muddles”, an attitude that seems to persist, if in more sedate form, within the details of this film.
Still, one doesn’t wish to be too po-faced about these things, and The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel should provide a few hours solid entertainment for its target audience. Towards the beginning of the film, a pushy estate agent rather undiplomatically describes his intention to exploit the “grey pound”, something which could serve as the film’s unofficial business plan.
If this rather patronising attitude does not grate on you too harshly, there is much here to enjoy. Just don’t expect great things – this is less a 21st century Passage to India, more an unthreatening Saga cruise.