Went to see this movie yesterday, mostly for the number of British stars in the cast: Judi Dench is the center of this movie, with Maggie Smith trying to steal it from her, and Bill Nighy and Tom Wilkinson also threatening to. I don’t think anyone’s made a movie before this about a bunch of retirees going to live in a disarrayed Indian palace-turned-hotel, though all the same, it didn’t feel unlike a lot of movies I’ve seen involving this kind of cast. Though it’s hard to mind that when the movie’s done this well.
Sure, poor Penelope Wilton gets stuck playing a harridan wife(though even she has her moment of redemption in the end), and yes, this kind of plot requires at least one old person to die by the end of the film, but one can never be entirely comfortable when yet again it’s the gay guy, but when the movie moves into exploring the depths of its characters, it can be very deeply moving. Judi Dench’s acting skills may not be tested by this role, but she makes a wonderful old lady turned blogger narrator, and Maggie Smith gets a bit more exercised as the bigoted old lady who unexpectedly earns the gratitude of an Untouchable servant and then ultimately saves the day when everything goes wrong. Nighy and Wilkinson too have their moments, the latter especially; his story is arguably the most touching.
Also it’s a very funny movie, though the jokes are very strongly woven into the narrative; some of them I found myself only finding funny later, when the plot wasn’t distracting me anymore. Lots of Indian scenery and music as well, with the former very much a look at the streets and “ground level” of India, focusing more on the crowds than the tourist appeal; you get a real feel for the place. Not that there’s not a good deal of eye candy even so.
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[...] As Izzy says, Penelope Wilton as Jean has the most thankless role. She is the middle-aged woman who is tired of her long-sufferingly kind but mechanically incompetent indeed self-deprecating husband, Douglas. She endlessly complains. He agrees with her the “sodding” flat they would have been reduced to in the UK won’t do, but does not agree that the way to endure life in India is to sit in a chair not going out, reading a book and hoping for English grilled food for dinner. She makes the mistake of semi-falling for Mr Dashwood who turns out to be gay. We are in fairy tale land, and as Bill Nighy’s culminating (reproachful) speech to Penelope Wilton makes explicit, the film tells us, make the best of things, do your best and don’t worry about it, and, well why not be cheered, why not show the better or happier face for yourself and others too. The movie is self-reflexive. I won’t give away the most moving incidents, only say Wilkinson is a gay man seeking a gay Indian young man he left behind 40 years ago (his name is Mr Dashwood, doubtless an allusion to the 2008 S&S), and there is such a sheer moment of unexpected joy at the end for another newly formed couple beyond the young ones that there was a kind of stillness in the movie matched by a stillness in the audience. It’s touch and go: the happy ending is almost not made. [...]