"A rare, optimistic portrait of aging that suggests it can be a productive, erotically charged time of life." - Washington Post
Now that his first venture, The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel for the Elderly and Beautiful, has only a single remaining vacancy—posing a predicament for fresh arrivals—Sonny (Dev Patel) has his eye on a promising property for expansion.
"The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel confounded expectations by becoming something of a surprise hit: a soft-hearted, defiantly benign comedy which sent a squadron of British retirees over to India to take advantage of the discounts outsourcing can provide (or “imperialism”, as it used to be called). It’s not the sort of film that would usually get a sequel, but one has duly arrived, with a slightly reshuffled pack of old-gold stage and screen veterans, plus the addition of an overseas transfer: Richard Gere, crinkly of eye and wafty of hair, as exotic a hothouse bloom himself in this type of good-natured British cinema.
"In seeking to exactly replicate the mood of its predecessor, The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel executes the time-honoured practice of giving the punters exactly what they want. Which is to say, a notional claim to contrast the pinched, gloomy prospect of a decline and death in wintry, cold-hearted Britain with the possibly achievable golden-years-in-late-summer India, where the latter’s irrepressible joie de vivre and bustling go-getter confidence is a marker of a societal respect for the older generation. Or something along those lines.
"Judi Dench and Bill Nighy are arguably the central figures this time, their romance inching along as each obstacle is laboriously hacked away. Dev Patel is hotel manager Sonny, attempting to branch out with another Marigold retirement hotel (in conjunction with Maggie Smith, as comedy racist Muriel) while organising his wedding to Sunaina. Gere shows up as a mysterious American visitor who may or may not be an inspector from the international hotel chain with whom Sonny and Muriel are trying to close a deal."
-The Guardian