The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel

In some ways this film is the spiritual successor to Calendar Girls - an ensemble piece for a Who's Who of British Acting talent of a certain age. Indeed, here you could argue that only Helen Mirren and Julie Walters are missing for the complete set. Like Calendar Girls it's also a pleasing but slightly uneven affair.

The set-up is that a collection of elderly British people move to a retirement hotel in India run rather haphazardly by Slumdog Millionaire's Dev Patel. There is probably a certain amount of cliche about the way that India is presented - temples and cricket in the streets, etc... and this certainly lacks some of Slumdog's bite, but director John Madden (Shakespeare in Love, The Debt) does succeed in capturing something of a vivid atmosphere of colours and busy-ness all around.

At its best, the film is both moving and inspiring. The most sensitively handled threads revolve around Tom Wilkinson's retired judge and his personal quest from his youth and Judi Dench's widow who has been left bankrupt by her husband, but is determined not to to let that hold her back. And both actors excel in their respective roles. Elsewhere, Celia Imrie and Ronald Pickup are both used pretty much as the comic relief in their respective searches to find a late romance. The younger romance between Patel and Tena Desae also struggles from a lack of room to breathe and a lack of depth compared to some of the more mature story-lines.

Maggie Smith gives a brave performance as a racist former housekeepeer only there for a hip replacement, but her story-line is the one that most needed more space in order to make her change of heart more credible. Elsewhere, Penelope Wilton is the poorest served of the cast as the nagging wife who simply can't cope with India and apparrently lacks a single redeeming feature. Bill Nighy does his unassertive Bill Nighy thing as her hen-pecked husband and their relationship even includes a final act race to the airport (although with rather unusual outcomes).

Overall - 7/10 At its best this movie is beautifully shot, funny, moving and inspiring, but its held back by a little uneveness and not enough room for all the story-lines.