The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel

Well, they got the title right. This is second best, which is not to say that it’s at all bad; it will doubtless give much pleasure to the grey hordes who loved the first film. But as with so many sequels the law of diminishing returns does creep in and this is second best to the original.

As before, the makers stuffed the cast with national treasures – the likes of Judi Dench, Maggie Smith and Bill Nighy – and for good measure threw in that Hollywood silver fox Richard Gere. But they rather forgot to give the film a strong plot.

The main storyline concerns the efforts of Dev Patel, aided by Smith, to add a second (ie, another) best exotic hotel to the one where our cast of retired Brits already lives. This is not enough to carry a whole movie so around it we have a series of subplots of varying degrees of interest.

The film opens strongly in California with the engagingly verbose Patel and the wonderfully acerbic Smith trying to persuade American financier David Strathairn to invest in Patel’s business.

Then we go to Jaipur to meet the rest of the cast and get acquainted with the subplots. For instance, there’s the question of the will-they-won’t-they romance between Dench and Nighy; there’s the matter of Patel’s impending marriage and his jealousy of an old friend and business rival; there’s horny Celia Imrie torn between two wealthy Indian suitors and there’s Ronald Pickup, terrified that he has inadvertently asked a taxi driver to kill Diana Hardcastle, with whom he is having a somewhat troubled affair.

And then to complicate matters even further, Gere turns up and is immediately assumed by Patel to be a hotel inspector sent by Strathairn to suss out the way he runs his business.

Much fulsome toadying ensues, even though Gere says he has come to write a novel. Patel, who has a bigger role here than in the first film, gives great toadying and would even be happy to pimp his own mother for Gere, who has taken a fancy to her.

At the same time as Gere arrives another new guest, Tamsin Greig, who may or may not be what she appears to be, also checks in and is treated with scant respect.

So, yes, it does get a bit silly but although at times there seems to be a slight air of desperation about Ol Parker’s screenplay as all the various bits of the subplots unravel, it’s an engaging and amusing tale. The original hotel is suitably chaotic, Jaipur looks splendidly exotic and director John Madden handles the action skilfully.

Inevitably, though, it’s the powerful veteran cast that gives the film it’s greatest appeal and all of them acquit themselves well, especially Maggie Smith with her salty dialogue, sharp put-downs and obsession with death.

Somewhat unexpectedly the film ends on a touching and poignant note, leaving one to wonder whether or not there will be yet another sequel.