THE SECOND BEST MARIGOLD HOTEL

The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel in Jaipur is doing such good business these days that there is only one unoccupied room which causes a problem when two new guests arrive at the same time to claim it . It's ladies first but before Lavinia Beech can check into the Hotel's best room the key is swiped out of her hands and is given to Guy Chambers as Sonny the Hotel's over exuberant young owner believes he is a Hotel Inspector. Sonny has just returned from the USA to seek investors to help him expand and buy a second premises and before they will give him a decision they have promised to send someone undercover to check out the Hotel to see if it is really as good as the picture he has painted.

What started out as run-down refuge for an eccentric group of British retirees who couldn't afford to eke out an existence on their reduced circumstances and had been lured by the idea of a cheap life in the sun has turned into a vibrant hotel, albeit still run with more than a touch of chaos. Now almost a year later far from being retired all of them are now fully employed and very busy; Douglas gives tours of sites he knows precious little off, Evelyn has become a textile sourcer, Madge and Norman tend Bar at the ex-Pats club, Carol is a travel agent and Muriel is the Hotel's co-manager.

They are more than ever one big almost happy family and this sequel leading on from the unexpected box office hit of 2012 now focuses on giving them all a love interest to share their lives with. Or in the case of Douglas and Evelyn, trying to finally get them to first base at least.  The movie re-unites this stellar cast of British veterans that include Maggie Smith and Judi Dench both touching 80 years, and who coast through this amiable lightweight movie with such charm and great ease leaving all the hard physical work to young Dev Patel who as Sonny frenetically flaps around them rather manically for the entire two hours.

Director John Madden reunited with writer Ol Parker insures that the story has more than its fair share of great one-liners most of which are delivered by Maggie Smith so that she can maintain her reputation as the queen of put downs. She is equally as  sharp with her eyes as she is with tongue as she is the one who has a handle on what's really going down in the Hotel. We are also never far behind as the outcome of all the plot lines are extremely easily foreseen. Except by Sonny.

Adding the silver fox Richard Gere into the mix this time was a clever touch and gave Madge (played by the brilliant Celie Imrie) the perfect opportunity to make some wicked sexist remarks.  The whole movie is quite a delight and there is nothing not to like in this entertaining piece of make believe. Even the India it is set in is colorful and idyllically romanticized that it bears no resemblance to reality.

Despite the presence of these acting greats who can mesmerize by simply reading the telephone directory out loud, there were however times when the lightweight plot was stretched too thin and we were just left hanging waiting for something to happen. After all compared to the original film this really was The Second Best.

★★★★★★★