The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel - B-

Judi Dench and Bill Nighy

Rated PG, 122 minutes
Wes's Grade: B-

Unsurprising "The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel" delivers more warm charm of the first film

When a sleeper hit like the 2012 dramedy "The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel" comes along, it's hard to duplicate its success, but its enjoyable, sweet sequel, "The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel," while providing little variation of the first film, certainly does try, and the calculated appeal of the story is only held together by the charms of its talented cast. The story tells of the expansionist dream of Sonny (the always energetic Dev Patel), and it's making more claims on his time than he has available, considering his imminent marriage to fiance, Sunaina (Tina Desai). His hotel has only a single remaining vacancy - posing a rooming predicament for fresh arrivals Guy (Richard Gere) and Lavinia (Tamsin Greig). Evelyn and Douglas (Judi Dench and Bill Nighy) have now joined the Jaipur workforce, while Norman and Carol (Ronald Pickup and Diana Hardcastle) are negotiating the tricky waters of an exclusive relationship, as Madge (Celia Imrie) juggles some interested suitors. Perhaps the only one who may know the answers (and everyone's secrets) is the new co-manager of the hotel, Muriel (Maggie Smith). Directed by "Shakespeare in Love's" John Madden, written by Ol Parker and handsomely scored by Thomas Newman, all of whom delivered the first film to international success, the warm "The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel" is more of the same as the first film, yet a fun continuation of the adventures of the senior set, and on that note, this is likely to skewer to the older folks, which is none too surprising. The charming film is held together by its large, gifted cast, particularly Oscar-winners and veterans Dench and Smith, who fortunately share a few more warm scenes this time out, but much like the first film, "Second Best" uses their talents in a divide-and-conquer type of attitude, keeping them separated most of the movie; Dench is as lovely as ever with her golden white hair, while the always fun and usually cranky Smith in particular is quite the tart here, stealing scenes with some of the movie's best lines ("just because I'm looking at you doesn't mean I'm actually interested in what you're saying," she tells one character). Patel is charming but also a little too hyper (dude, please, chill), and Gere a good addition to the proceedings, but even with that, the modestly enjoyable but unoriginal "The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel" isn't much other than a slightly overlong and predictable geriatric soap opera about surviving in India, and if you're interested in that sort of thing (and enjoyed the first film), then you'll have a good time here. My only hope is that there isn't a "Third Best Exotic Marigold Hotel," or they find a better name for a sequel, and the hotel.