© Fox Searchlight
I love Judi Dench. I first noticed her in 1998’s “Shakespeare in Love,” where her tart-tongued Queen Elizabeth scored her an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress. She made a hell of an impression in less than seven minutes of screen time.
Dench, now 80, returns as a British senior living in India for “The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel,” a sequel to 2012’s sleeper hit “The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel.” The first film, based on Deborah Moggach’s novel These Foolish Things, charmed with its fish-out-of-water scenario and its seniors finding a lust for life — and lust in general — abroad.
The sequel has a title meant as an endearing malapropism, but it turns out to be truth in advertising, as I say in my review today at Word and Film. This time, there’s an unwelcome shift from Dench and the seniors to hotel proprietor Sonny (Dev Patel), his plans for expansion, and his wedding. Too much plot, too little focus, in spite of some lush visuals in costumes and production design that make the sumptuous colors of India pop off the screen.
Which is too bad. Dench, Bill Nighy, Maggie Smith, Richard Gere and the other cast members are top-notch and a treat to watch, even as they’re spouting platitudes meant to rethink our attitudes on aging. Seeing Dench facing insecurity and then finding inner ferocity in a new career — at her age! — as a textile buyer is all the inspiration younger viewers like me need to keep on truckin.’ Give us more Dame Judi and her cohorts, please.