The story revolves around a crumbling palace in India, now owned by the son of the previous owner, who has a dream of restoring the building to its original glory. Anyone who has ever had a dream can identify with that.
The plan is to turn the palace into a retirement hotel for 'beautiful, elderly people' and a group of Brits are the first guests. But the hotel is far from ready and so begins a delightful adventure, with several little sub plots, including educating a call centre as to how to call an elderly person in the UK.
With fantastic casting by Michelle Guish and Seher Latif, the main parts are played to perfection by Dev Patel, Tena Desal, Maggie Smith, Judi Dench, Bill Nighy, Celia Imrie, Penelope Wilton, Ronald Pickup and Tom Wilkinson. The original music is by Thomas Newman and The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel is definitely worth seeing. The underlying message seems to be that it is never too late in life to start again or to find some magic.
As always, we find it impossible to leave the cinema until the screen has gone black - after all, no film would make it to the screen without the hard work and dedication of the back-room boys and girls, as well as the director, producer, stars, extras, and so on. You never know, we just might meet someone involved behind the scenes one day ... a big thank you to all involved for a wonderful film.
