Sunday, June 3, 2012

Marigolds and Popcorn

The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel - What's Really Important?


A group of British retirees decide to "outsource" their retirement to less expensive and seemingly exotic India. Enticed by advertisements for the newly restored Marigold Hotel and bolstered with visions of a life of leisure, they arrive to find the palace a shell of its former self. Though the new environment is less luxurious than imagined, they are forever transformed by their shared experiences, discovering that life and love can begin again when you let go of the past.

I found this movie totally delightful though I admit I can’t get a handle on what I might have thought of it at a younger age. The theater was full of graying, grayed (and balding) women, and we all loved it!  Who couldn’t love this amazing cast, this whimsical but plausible idea and the constant visual feast offered by the Marigold Movie?  We embraced and identified with  every nuance, insecurity, corny line, and wrinkle.

Sign me up to hang out with such interesting characters in my old age. Please don’t point out the rails along the walls or the monkey dishes of canned fruit cocktail. Don’t show me the “excursion” van for Drs. appointments, or the multipurpose room for popsickle crafts. Show me Judi and Maggie and some fabulous clothes. Show me hopes and dreams I'd never admit I still have. Show me new places to go and new things to learn. Show me the Best Exotic Marigold Hotel.  Just maybe not in India.

4 comments:

Helen said...

Kindred spirits! I saw this delightful movie the day it opened here ~ at 3:30pm in a theater with not ONE empty seat. Yes, we were all retired with varying shades of grey, a few with walkers and oxygen tanks. The theater manager told me in the history of opening days, they had never experienced this kind of turnout. Just shows how powerful our demographic is! My neighbor across the street (in a condo/townhome) just sold their place on craigslist! To a couple in Alaska looking for a vacation home. You might want to suggest that option to your friends.

Dolores said...

I'd never heard of this movie until last week and one of my friendrs was raving about how much she enjoyed it. I must go see it!!

One Woman's Journey - a journal being written from Woodhaven - her cottage in the woods. said...

I have to see this movie.
Love your thoughts
I am of the same mindset....
I wonder a lot
is their another lifestyle for me
and more interaction with those
who are similar?

Mage said...

Oh, yes, yes, yes. We loved it unconditionally with G sitting next to me saying, "Yes, it was just like that," and repeat. He grew up in Lahore. I think Maggie Smith gets the best award of all. This film is a keeper.