Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: Best Exotic Marigold Hotel

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Posted by Gerard S. Cohen (Member # 994) on 05-17-2012, 11:35 AM:

Wed. May 16 2012 at Kew Gardens Theatre Aud. #3

Responding to the enticement of a travel brochure promising luxury retirement at affordable rates, six to eight eldery people from varied English backgrounds journey to India to find the hotel and the environment an unexpected and shocking challenge. Their efforts to cope with the Indian culture, and their relationships with themselves and each other, form a hillarious entertainment that had me laughing out loud, tearing up frequently, and applauding at the end.

Excellent acting by Judi Dench, Bill Higby and Maggie Smith, as well as the rest of the English and Indian cast, and the
delightful musical track and colorful, crowded street scenes made this a most memorable comedy.

I found the writing intelligent and apropos of our times, with
plot elements concerning personal issues of free choice, parent-child conflicts, acceptance of other cultures, races and gays,
global outsourcing of telephone call centers, medical care, and the major issue, the problem of care of our elderly populations.

Though I had not visited India since th 1960's, I found the culture basically unchanged, but the excitement and noise level increased. Cell phones, call centers, motorized pedicabs and the greater ambition of the young shown in this film were new.

I found this film a delightful experience.
Some problem caused the digital projection to start late, and the lights undimmed before the film ended, but otherwise the image and sound were excellent.

Posted by Sam Graham (Member # 2889) on 05-29-2012, 10:06 PM:

CINEMA: Megaplex at Jordan Commons, Sandy, UT
AUDITORIUM: 8
PRESENTATION: Dolby Digital Cinema DLP
PRESENTATION PROBLEMS: There was an audio buzz during the pre-show, but smooth sailing once the trailer package started
RATING: Three stars (out of four)

Since there's now an additional auditorium with the "Groove VIP Luxury Lounge and Auditorium" (installed in the space that used to be the arcade) and a couple more coming in the gutted Mayan space, "17" was taken off the ball on the entry signage. Actually, based on theatre names on their website, it appears they're doing away with the auditorium number in ALL of their theatre names.

THE PLOT: Old farts get suckered into moving to India. Wackiness ensues.

An all-star British cast in a beautiful setting with a really charming script makes this a good movie, even if it does sort of play like an Aaron Spelling serial. It wouldn't take a lot of rewriting to transform this into a Fantasy Island reboot.

They showed the trailer for "Moonrise Kingdom" ahead of the movie. I SO want to see that RIGHT NOW.

Posted by Jonathan Goeldner (Member # 4854) on 06-03-2012, 10:32 PM:

I agree Gerard, I saw this on a Sony DP system and the cinematography was jaw dropping in it's sharpness, colour and dimensionality. Soundwise I thought the mix was inconsistent in its' volume and the mixing making the voices seem very forward at times.

the movie though was very enjoyable.

Posted by Frank Cox (Member # 6258) on 06-15-2012, 05:36 PM:

This is definitely a good movie. I'm rather surprised that it's classifed General in Saskatchewan and BC, since some of the humour is a bit cruder than I expected in a G movie.

The filmmakers must have liked Tatie Danielle - the Muriel Donnelly character (played by Maggie Smith) seems to be patterned directly off of the title character in that movie.

I can definitely see the appeal of this movie to the older crowd.

Posted by Claude S. Ayakawa (Member # 1401) on 06-15-2012, 06:41 PM:

Thanks for the 'heads up' about THE BEST MARYGOLD HOTEL, Gerald. It is playing (35mm) at the Consolidated's Kahala 8 in Honolulu right now and I think I will see it tomorrow. Christy Lemire of the Associated Press gave it two stars and said "-----but more often feels heavy handed, sappy and overlong" but from your comments and others about the movie, her views sounds like a typical film critic that has her nose up in the air.

-Claude