"The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel" Review

In “The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel”, a group of British seniors, for a variety of reasons, “outsource” their retirement to India.  Despite the simplicity and predictability of the plot, the film works because of the outstanding cast of seasoned British actors, which includes, among others, Judi Dench, and Tom Wilkinson. Fans of Downton Abbey will enjoy Maggie Smith’s performance as Muriel, the bigoted old bag, and Penelope Wilton's
portrayal of an unlikeable, and excessively negative, domineering wife. 

The characters are strangers to one another until they meet en route to Jaipur.  They are the first group of guests at the hotel, whose proprietor, Sonny (Dev Patel of Slum Dog Millionaire fame), has misrepresented its grandeur in promotional material.  Sonny’s idea is to restore the property and “outsource aging” because people in the west dislike the elderly.  There is a pointed comment about contemporary western attitudes towards the elderly in Sonny’s dream of creating a “home for the elderly, so wonderful that they will simply refuse to die.”

This charming movie deals in a lighthearted way with the challenges of aging as it explores issues such as health, loss and loneliness, independence, and financial constraints. As the characters attempt to reconcile the changes that come with aging, the audience is treated to some relevant insights about life.

The young, optimistic Sonny lives by the mantra, “Everything will be all right in the end. So if it is not all right, it is not yet the end.”  Even though he describes his life at one point as a series of “catastrophes”, he is unshakeable in his conviction that things eventually work towards the good.  Sonny embodies the virtue of hope.

Smith’s character, Muriel, has gone to India for a free, fast tracked hip replacement as part of a pilot program. At her age, she could die during the 6-month waiting period at home. She sarcastically tells the doctor, “I don’t even buy green bananas!”  Her hilarious delivery packs an important “carpe diem” punch.

The poignancy of Muriel’s situation is revealed as the film progresses. She is a single woman who dedicated her life to serving one family. As she aged, the family replaced her with someone younger. Muriel struggles with feelings of rejection and uselessness, but she is not ready to give up living.  Perhaps more than any other character in the film, she transforms her situation by first transforming her inner self, and then goes to work transforming the hotel into the place of Sonny's dream.

In order to supplement her meager income, Evelyn (Dench) finds a job at a call center as a cultural adviser. Confused about technology at the beginning of the film, she blogs about her experiences in India on the “interweb”.  She posts, “The only real failure is the failure to try, and success is measured by how we cope with disappointment.” Evelyn, who  blissfully relied on her husband, now deceased, is confronted with a series of disappointing realizations. Circumstances pushed her out the door of her comfortable life. Her post is an encouraging shove to anyone who finds it difficult to wander out of their established comfort zone.

While Evelyn who holds the movie together, Graham (Tom Wilkinson) emerges as the most sympathetic character.  Unlike the other characters, we have to wait to discover Graham’s reason for retiring to India.  Graham is in search of reconciliation and healing. He is haunted by an incident from his past, and has spent a lifetime living with regret and guilt.  Graham is finally able to forgive himself when he confronts the past and discovers that the consequences of the incident were much graver in his imagination than in real life.  Graham’s story speaks to the difficult reality of healing painful memories, and learning to forgive one’s self for the perceived or actual wrongs one has done.

As the film nears its happy conclusion, Evelyn comments, “Nothing here has worked out quite as I expected.” Muriel sagely replies, “Most things don’t, but sometimes what happens instead is the good stuff.” Life is mystery. We know the characters in our own story, but the plot of our life frequently unfolds in ways we could never imagine.

At its core, this film is about people transforming their situations, and positively affecting the lives of others. The movie is refreshing in its ability to communicate its messages in a gentle and often humorous fashion. While I didn’t agree with the choices that some of the other characters made en route to transformation, I left the theater with a smile on my face and in my heart.

Serious themes in “The Hunger Games”

The recently released movie, “The Hunger Games”, based on Suzanne Collins’s book of the same name, continues to attract moviegoers.  Although targeted at teens, both the book and movie have attracted a widespread audience. The popularity of the “The Hunger Games” probably has more to do with its plot and marketing, than with themes of voter apathy, pop culture’s focus on the self, and the moral relativism prevalent in western society.

Watch the trailer: http://www.thehungergamesmovie.com/intl/ca-en/index2.html

Plot Summary

The “Hunger Games” is set in post-apocalyptic North America, in a territory called Panem, which is Latin for “bread”.  A totalitarian government, operating out of a luxurious, decadent Capitol, controls the 12 districts that comprise the nation. Every year, as punishment for a rebellious uprising, each district sends 2 tributes, a male and female between the ages of 12 -18, to compete in the Hunger Games. The games are in their 74^th year, and something is about to change.

In a survival of the fittest contest, the 24 tributes compete over a two-week period until only one remains alive. The games are played out in a fenced off wilderness area, equipped with cameras that broadcast the event throughout Panem. The contestants are ranked, and citizens bet on the tributes. The state manipulates the games with technology. The Gamemakers, who dutifully do their jobs, send in fireballs, poisonous blueberries, and ferocious man eating dogs in attempts to eliminate tributes. This manipulation makes the games more exciting for the fans, and more profitable for sponsors and government.

Overtones of the Roman Empire

The philosophy of the games is aptly summed up in the Latin phrase “panem e circenses”, meaning “bread and circuses”.  The Roman poet Juvenal coined the phrase in the 1^st century to describe the political strategy of providing free grain and lavish gladiatorial games to control the people, and distract them from any meaningful participation in civic life.  The phrase also denotes a decadent and hedonistic populace; people who satiate themselves with entertainment, instant gratification, and pleasure.

In the Panem games, Big Brother and the media team up to keep the people in line and ensure the status quo. For the citizens of Panem, the games are both entertainment and a yearly reminder of the consequences of rebelling against the established order. The games are definitely reminiscent of the gladiatorial contests that symbolized the moral decay of Rome.

Gladiators from the Zliten Mosaic (Libya)

Satire and visual criticism

The movie satirizes the reality TV genre, its popularity and its fans. The hunger games are an extreme version of “Survivor”. The citizens are fans with no moral compass. They happily gobble up the questionable values on display, which are attractively packaged and excitingly presented.

“The Hunger Games” visually portrays criticism of the gap between the rich and poor.  Those in the Capitol enjoy an abundance of food, while the heroine, Katniss, illegally hunts and sell squirrels to provide food for her family. The city dwellers wear extravagant, absurd fashions (that satirize the runway) in contrast to the poor, simple attire of those in the outlying districts.  The powerful ignore the plight of the poor while the wealthy are oblivious to it.

Moral relativism fills the spiritual vacuum

The Capitol is a spiritually bankrupt place. The citizens have lost their sense of the sacred, and of the transcendent soul within each person. “The Hunger Games” depicts a sad world populated with pitiful people who feverishly seek fulfillment in empty and cruel pleasures. The collective moral compass is broken, and the average citizen has no moral touchstone.

In such an environment, the only life that has value is one’s own; others are expendable, especially the marginalized. They can be voted off the island in the most callous manner, as in the lottery selection process, called “The Reaping”, that takes place to select the tributes.

Relativism flourishes in this spiritual vacuum, and insidiously creeps throughout the entire country. In “The Hunger Games”, the spin-doctors have lulled the population into accepting the unthinkable, teens killing teens for the amusement and profit of others.  The people of Panem accept the games as an honorable tradition instead of an atrocity, and the tributes as self-sacrificing heroes instead of frightened children trying to stay alive.  The people are complicit in endorsing an evil.

While I thought the movie was highly overrated, unnecessarily violent in places, and occasionally boring, the movie raises questions about modern day politics, pop culture, morality, and spirituality that deserve consideration. If it does not, our society is as shallow and spiritually bankrupt as the government and citizens of the Capitol.