Hello everyone!! Lisa from Boondock Ramblings and I are back to watching and sharing about comfy cozy (and sometimes, chilling) movies for the fall season. Feel free to join in with us!!

This week our movie was The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, with an all star cast. I knew we were in for a treat after seeing this powerhouse of a lineup.

I mentioned the cast, but let’s take a closer look. Bill Nighy, whom I love in everything, Dame Judy Dench, Dame Maggie Smith, Tom Wilkinson, Celia Imrie, Penelope Wilton – but I will say that the other actors held there own, particularly Dev Patel. He is an award winner himself but just a young actor compared to some of his co-stars.

Anyway, we were really looking forward to this movie. It has been on my to watchlist for ages, but I just never had gotten around to it. When Lisa picked it for our line up, I was pretty excited. Billy and I made a thing of it too, ordering Indian takeout to eat before watching, and it was just a nice little treat to watch the movie with these flavors so fresh in our minds.

The movie is about a group of retirees who through various circumstances find themselves en route to India, to stay at the Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, which has been touted as a place for the elderly and the beautiful. The website and brochure photos depict this hotel as a gorgeous vision of a hotel, that is also affordable for those who may be on a fixed income. However, the hotel is truly that – just a vision of the idealistic young man who runs it. It is there, there are rooms, but it is a bit of a shambles.

As I mentioned, the characters are all there for different reasons, and they all settle into the country very differently as well. Some go in with very preconceived ideas of the culture, some with hopes for finding things that were lost, some with hopes for the future, but all coming to terms with the stage of life they find themselves in. It was interesting to watch these characters come to terms with the transition they were in, finding their new place in the world, juxtaposed against the vivid liveliness of India. The music, the almost frenetic energy, the colors, the chatter and noise, the flavors of the food, was just so alive while these characters sorted through some very poignant emotions – and it was probably the best possible place to start a new life, in a place so overflowing with it.

I very much enjoyed this movie, and of course the cast. Dev Patel’s enthusiasm was contagious, and I truly believed in him. Maggie Smith was amazing, as always, and her character might have been my favorite of them all. I don’t want to go too into this sort of analyzation, as I don’t want to reveal anything or give anything away so I should stop here. However, Billy and I really liked this movie, and found it very moving. It was perfect for a warm early fall evening, with a bellyful of Indian food.

If you are interested in linking up with us, here is our linky! This movie is available to stream on Amazon Prime, Apple TV and Fandango at Home, and may be available at your local libraries!

https://fresh.inlinkz.com/js/widget/load.js?id=c0efdbe6b4add43dd7ef

Find Lisa’s post here!

Next up: Somewhere in Time! Post date Sept. 19.