subject: Watch The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel Free Full Streaming Movie 2012 [print this page] "The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel" is supposed to be Indias answer for the UK's most elegant retirees a place where they can spend their golden years surrounded by lush amenities that is, until seven retirees who are in need of a transformation find themselves on the front steps of the not-quite-ready resort. Thus begins a comic, romantic and poignant adventure in a land full of unexpected pleasures, brought to life by some of the most honored and accomplished screen actors of our time. Maggie Smith is wheelchair-bound Muriel, a scowling racist only taking the trip to get a cheap hip replacement. Tom Wilkinson plays Graham, a single High Court judge, revisiting his youthful past. Bill Nighy and Penelope Wilton are a couple disillusioned with each other; Celia Imrie as a vivacious gold-digger and Ronald Pickup, a lonely Lothario reduced to speed-dating, complete the cast.
Its predictable from the outset that of this group, not all will survive, that new relationships will begin and others will fracture. Therell surely be secrets, lies and discoveries; everyone will belatedly learn life lessons. The ruthlessly schematic script by Ol Parker (adapted from Deborah Moggachs 2004 novel These Foolish Things) swiftly quashes any doubts on that score.This would matter less if most of these characters were not ciphers, easily defined by one word. Dench and Wilkinson get the plum roles, the ones with vestiges of nuance; in her best scene, which she carries off with stylish vigour, Denchs Evelyn teaches bright young Indian call-centre workers how to talk by phone to elderly would-be clients with appropriate humanity.
Wilkinsons Graham, earnest and kindly, uses the trip to unburden himself gradually of a wrong that has long troubled him.Parker and director John Madden (Shakespeare in Love) display Jaipur from the perspective of wide-eyed western tourists. All the routine observations about India are present and correct: the lush, bright colours, dense crowds, the boys who call all adult men uncle and play makeshift cricket on demolition sites. Some of the wince-inducing clichs are straight from travel brochures: at one point Denchs Evelyn calls India an assault on the senses. Major themes poverty, the caste system, arranged marriages are dutifully but briefly touched upon.
In fact, theres far too much going on for a single film to handle even one lasting over two hours. One narrative strand that might usefully have been discarded concerns the hotels young manager Sonny Kapoor (played by Slumdog Millionaires Dev Patel). Sonny is over-eager, out of his depth and irritatingly talkative; the ups and downs of his romance with his modern girlfriend (of whom his mother disapproves) detract from the storys main thrust and feel like the one sop to younger audiences.Still, despite all the creaky contrivances (notably Muriels new-found ability to walk coinciding with her realisation that brown people arent so bad after all) theres a benign impulse at work here.The case to be made for The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel is that it addresses a sector of the cinema audience the over-50s routinely overlooked by the film industry, and deals, however lightly, with subject matter that meshes with their preoccupations. Good intentions alone do not make a great film, and its certainly not: but its sweet-natured, good-hearted and decent.
Its rare to watch a film post Slumdog Millionaire that hasnt frustrated Asian viewers with its volley of Indian clichs that fit every stereotype a Westerner may have cradled since the fall of the British Empire.John Maddens (Shakespeare in Love) The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel is guilty of this crime; yet, it somehow manages to rise above the mediocrity largely due to the combined strength of its powerful actors, including Dame Judi Dench, Tom Wilkinson, Maggie Smith and Bill Nighy.Adapted from the bestselling book, These Foolish Things by Deborah Moggach, Madden takes creative liberty with his screenplay to nip/tuck the originals premise without comprising on the lead characters or their vulnerabilities.The film follows a group of seven misfit British retirees whose respective personal conflicts and financial hardships encourages them to outsource their final days to a Jaipur retirement hotel, which promises a slice of exotic India for the elderly.It all sounds picture perfect on paper, but lo and behold, upon arrival nothing is as clear-cut or simple in India.
Dev Patels Sonny is the maharaja of this rundown Jaipur palace, aptly called The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, which is a far cry from any lap of luxury that our foreigners would have imagined.While the lonely Evelyn (Dench) looks upon her Indian misadventure with a share of restrained amusement, awe and vulnerability, as she takes baby steps towards independence post her husbands death, Penelope Wiltons Jean is her antithesis as the neurotic, domineering wife of the long-suffering Douglas (Bill Nighy), who resents India itself for not offering her the safety net of familiar surroundings that awaits her in England.Jean and Douglas marital problems are immediately evident as the formers snobbish countenance draws her like an over eager puppy towards the handsome, and well respected retired judge Graham (Wilkinson), while Nighys character finds solace and heart-warming grace in Evelyn. Watch free movies online
Meanwhile, Graham is warding off his own inner demons as he embarks on a quest to find a long-lost friend with whom he once shared a forbidden romance, and then damned him to his fate in a society that still frowns down on gay relationships.As the quartet play out their roles in an emotional dance, humour comes in spades with Maggie Smiths portrayal of the racist with a heart of gold Muriel, who has been forced to embark on her Indian escapade to find a cheaper alternative to a hip replacement.Joining her brand of sarcasm are the two frisky retirees, Madge (Celia Imrie) and Norman (Ronald Pickup), who see India as a gateway to exotica, rather than the exotic.The plot unravels in layers, with each shedding of skin revealing every individuals private fears and inhibitions, as they overcome their personal battles or succumb to their weaknesses.
Madden briefly touches on Indias controversial caste system, unsurprisingly tying it with Muriels tale, while Evelyns success in securing her first job is inevitably at an outsourced call centre.Despite the obviousness of the plot, the sincerity of its lead actors warms your heart and almost sees you share that vulnerability with the fear of lifes many hurdles that are married with old age.If there is a hindrance to the film, then it comes in the form of Patels Sonny, whose wooden expressions and fake Indian accent grates on the nerves, as he desperately attempts to play the over zealous caretaker of this questionable property, while romancing the modern-age Sunaina (Tena Desae, who is a far improvement on the butter-cant-melt-in-her-mouth Frieda Pinto).
Predictably, Madden (or is it Moggach) also brings in a sub plot that takes a page directly out of a Bollywood potboiler, as Sonnys mother (a delightful Lillete Dubey) opposes the match, before the hotels aged gardener narrates another tale of star-crossed lovers that once walked these palace grounds. Ho hum.You can excuse Madden this folly and the fact that the narrative of The Best Exotic is a far cry from the gripping romance that won his Shakespeare in Love seven Oscars in 1998.But his career peak should not be held over his head like the proverbial Sword of Damocles, but rather take this film for what it is a slice of life that can be poignant and bittersweet but can also teach us the ability to laugh at ourselves.
