The following statement is rare, one that you seldom read on this blog: “I liked the movie better than I liked the book.” Allow me to explain.
Jean, Geni and I went to see the movie THE BEST EXOTIC MARIGOLD HOTEL and loved it. As a result, I had to read the book by Deborah Moggach. I have found that if I see a movie first and then read the book, I enjoy both more than if I read the book first. THE BEST EXOTIC MARIGOLD HOTEL proved this to be true.
The basic story involves a group of senior citizens who, for mainly financial reasons, move from England to the Marigold Hotel in India, a hotel advertised to be an exotic home for the elderly. Arrival in India, and especially the promised “elegant” hotel, causes different reactions in the retirees. To one, it is coming home after years in England. To another it is a chance to find romance in the later years of life. Some are just appalled by the poverty of the country….. not to mention the lack of water, electricity, and privacy at the hotel itself. This gives the opportunity for a multi-layered plot and us a chance to watch each of the characters to grow, in spite of their ages.
The movie had several advantages going for it. To me the biggest plus was the cast: Maggie Smith, Judi Dench, Bill Nighy, and Tom Wilkinson, among others. This is a very heavy acting ensemble. I love all four of them, but have to admit that if a movie is ever made of my life, I rather hope that Maggie Smith is given the opportunity to play me.
The second thing that got my approval was the condensation of the characters. Due to time constraints movies have to compress people and plot. Many times this is a bad thing. This time it helped. In some cases, a character was dropped completely; in some cases, several characters from the book were blended into one person for the movie. I felt that this strengthened the importance of the main characters considerably. It also gave more interesting twists to their individual stories.
I also like the addition of the sub-plot. Instead of a bickering married couple as the owners of the Marigold, the hotel owner in the movie was young and in love with an, according to his mother, unsuitable young woman, giving a nice Romeo/Juliet touch.
Deborah Moggach has written a nice book, but THE BEST EXOTIC MARIGOLD HOTEL made an excellent movie. It is the perfect choice for the more mature movie goer. Such movies are becoming scarce.
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