With how many films I see every month, it’s inevitable that I’ll come across films where I am not the intended demographic for various reasons. Whether it’s films aimed at very young audiences like Maya The Bee Movie or Tinker Bell And The Pirate Fairy, or films aimed primarily at the opposite gender like 50 Shades Of Grey or The Best Of Me, although I would argue that both of the latter aren't aimed at anyone except for inmates on death row just so the electric chair will feel like a pleasant reprieve. This film, and its currently-released sequel, was once aptly described to me as being for the elderly what Kingsman is for my generation; add to that that this is billed as a feel-good film, and I find myself just as hesitant to watch it as I was three years ago when it first came out. Nevertheless, I pride myself on doing the necessary research when it’s required, and this definitely applies, so before I get to the sequel I’m going to take a look at the first film.
The plot: Evelyn (Judi Dench), Douglas (Bill Nighy), Jean (Penelope Wilton), Muriel (Maggie Smith), Graham (Tom Wilkinson), Norman (Ronald Pickup) and Madge (Celia Imrie), all elderly Brits, decide of their own accords to stay at the 'luxurious' Best Exotic Marigold Hotel in India, run and co-owned by the manic Sonny (Dev Patel). While the dilapidated state of the hotel, not to mention the hustle and bustle on the streets outside it, grate on the residents at first, they soon begin to connect with their surroundings and each other and find some new life.
This is a seriously impressive ensemble cast of seasoned
British actors and they in no way slouch in this film; they all give
performances befitting their experience at the craft, however there’s a loose
screw in the works. I have made jokes in the past about actors being too good
at their roles, like Jake Gyllenhaal’s crazy turn in Nightcrawler, but here is
where that statement is made with all seriousness; Maggie Smith is by no means
a bad actor, but she is pretty badly miscast here. Her character starts out as
a pretty vocal racist, before going through the expected character development
that changes that in quite unrealistic fashion, and she plays it too straight
to be watchable. This feels like a character in the same vein as Michael
Douglas in And So It Goes, only this character isn’t meant to be funny… I don’t
think; like I said, it’s too straight-faced to discern and it actually makes
her scenes rather uncomfortable to watch for a time. I make a point of saying ‘miscast’
because if her role was given to Nighy, who is his usual dry-witted self, then
this could have worked out a lot better.
That’s not to say that the rest of the characters are all that great;
just that Muriel is the only one that genuinely bothered me while watching it.
The characterisation is pretty thinly drawn, with everyone coming across as
different variations of the 'wacky old person' archetype without any real
substance to them, and the fact that the writer has to juggle so many main
characters means that none of them get any solid time for the audience to
connect with them. The only real exception here is with Tom Wilkinson as
Graham, whose character arc feels like the one that had the most thought, and
therefore the most heart, put into it. In all honesty, if the film had focused
more on him, making the others supporting roles, then this also could have
worked out a lot better.
That’s ultimately what this comes down to at the end of the
day: It could have been better but wasn’t. I find myself at that stage where
there really isn’t a whole lot that can be said about this film for the simple
reason that this film wasn’t made for me. However, I don’t say this because I
am well outside of the intended age range for the film, but rather because I
don’t have any real affinity for mood pieces like this. The last time I saw a supposed "feel good" movie with last year’s The Hundred-Foot Journey, I found myself in
a similar position where I had just seen a film that spent so much time trying
to engage the heart that it completely bypassed the head. I will give this film
the credit that it isn’t quite as dismal as Hundred-Foot Journey, as this has a
third act that feels like it has a reason to exist within the film, but then again, that’s an easy thing to do
when you’re dealing with a film that has no real plot to begin with; it’s just
a bunch of character arcs colliding into each other with mixed success. I can’t
even bring myself to say that it failed in what it attempted because it plays
everything way too safe to give the impression that any real effort was made
here.
.
All in all, this is an impeccable cast that does what
they can with what they’re given, but the writing and overall feeling of the
film are too weak to really create anything substantial, even on an emotional
level. The only real emotion I felt upon finishing this film was mild dread at
knowing that this somehow got a sequel made of it, along with some apprehension
about how Dev Patel is going to be in the upcoming Chappie given his
hyperactive performance here.
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