Old People Can Be So Cute: Trailer for ‘The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel’

By  · Published on September 16th, 2011

If you’re looking to take the geriatrics in your life out on a hot movie date, have we got a film for you! John Madden’s The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel! It’s about old British people who move to India because it’s cheap! Fun, right? You know how the title’s syntax is just a smidge off? That’s probably how the cultural minglings (manglings?) of the film will pan out, too ‐ just a little off and just a tad incorrect.

The film stars a murderer’s row of prime British talent, including Judi Dench, Maggie Smith, Bill Nighy, and Tom Wilkinson. Playing a pack of retirees looking for a cheap place to kick it (you know, until they die), the group sets off for distant India (exotic! and best! now with more marigolds!) to a rehabbed hotel that’s been marketed as a swank retirement home that doesn’t cost an arm and a leg. Of course, said hotel isn’t quite up to snuff. Adventures will be had, lessons will be learned, something about saris and curry, and so on and so forth. Grab some prunes and check out the first trailer for The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel after the break.

Despite a phenomenal cast, the film looks to be chock-full of cultural stereotypes and overdone carpe diem-soaked cinematic tropes. Dev Patel is hapless? Old people are fake-dying? There’s a lot of moony staring off into the abyss? I guess it’s better than drinking Metamucil or something. Maybe.

The film’s script is penned by Ol Parker, from Deborah Moggach’s book These Foolish Things.

The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel opens on March 9, 2012. [Apple]