Sequel to The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel (2011), The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel (2015) centers most of the
dramatic tension on the hotel’s manager, Sonny Kapoor. In the first film, the
tension is more evened out among the hotel customers and Sonny’s bid to make
the run-down hotel a viable operation. The hurdles faced by the retirees in the
first film are more gritty, or realistic, than are the challenges in the
sequel. Indeed, the second film can come across to the viewer as excessively
glitzy, especially at the end when the customers, Sonny, and his family and
friends are on a dance floor positioned as if performing for an audience sitting
out in front. It is unlikely, for instance, that Sonny could dance so well,
particularly as he delayed practice to the disappointment of his fiancé,
Sunaina. That film becomes a performance, and this can stretch a viewer’s
suspension of disbelief because the screenwriter of both films, Ol Parker,
stretches the characters too far beyond themselves. That they, along with Sunny
and his wife and their families and friends go into a performance mode can
remind the viewer that he or she is watching a performance—that the movie
itself is a performance. So much for the suspension of disbelief, a
psychological wonder that allows the human mind to forget that it is watching a
movie and thus be able to “enter” the story-world.
The problems faced by the
hotel customers in the first film included locating a lover of long ago without
any remaining prospects of a life together (Graham Dashwood), getting a job
(Evelyn Greenslade), being in a bad marriage (Douglas and Jean Ainslie),
getting a hip replacement (Muriel Donnelly), and staving off boredom (Norman
Cousins). Sonny Kapoor struggles with making the rundown hotel work. These
“ordinary life” problems contrast with most (but not all) of the problems that
the characters face in the sequel.
The second film centers on
Sonny’s quest to engage an American corporate partner to put up funds to buy a
second hotel (even as Sonny’s real engagement with Sunaina suffers). In fact,
the film begins with Sonny, accompanied by Muriel Donnelly, in southern
California to visit a prospective partner in a sleek corporate office. It is as
if Sonny had made the first hotel into a smooth-functioning operation. Guy
Chambers, a hotel inspector played by Richard Gere, squashes any such illusion
fancied by Sonny. In fact, adding Gere, who often played smooth romantic leads, makes the film too star-studded, or glitzy rather than realistic. Gere looks utterly out of place at the hotel; that Sonny treats him like royalty does not help matters. At any rate, Sonny secures
Guy’s support not just for another rundown hotel, but, rather, for the highbrow
Viceroy’s Club. The purchase is completed incredibly fast, such that it is done
in time for Sonny’s and Sunaina’s wedding reception—nevermind that the
engagement had been rocky, especially as Sonny turned his attention to pleasing
Guy so to gain his financial recommendation so the corporation would agree to
become partners. Also at the glittery (and staged) reception, Evelyn’s
hesitancy in dating Douglas evaporates as he delivers a (staged) speech. The
problem with Douglas’ divorce is apparently solved. Norman Cousins and Carol
Parr talk about Carol’s having cheated on Norman, so they are fine. Any hint of
ordinary is gone as the customers (except for Muriel, whose sadness in facing
death is the outlier) join pretty-boy Guy and the united families (and friends)
of Sonny and Sunaina are suddenly performing a dance number positioned as if
they were on a theater stage.
Because the dramatic tension
in the first film is based on hardship, the tensions in the second film
involving the same characters may not feel real in the sense of being contained
within suspended disbelief. Graham Dashwood’s arduous attempts to get
information from local government bureaucrats and the man struggling with his
ailing heart as he plays cricket with some local boys are far indeed from the
Sonny’s over-the-top efforts to please Guy Chambers. Given Sonny’s immaturity,
it is astonishing that he is right that Guy is a hotel inspector (though Sonny
does not realize that the ill-treated hotel customer, Jodi, is also a hotel
inspector).
In short, the sequel loses
touch with its basis, the characters and their worlds in the first movie. This
is particularly odd because Ol Parker wrote both screenplays! I submit that the
sequel may even be a different genre than the first. The sequel ends as if it
were Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again (2018),
another sequel about a small hotel. With singing in nearly every scene, the
performances are not an over-stretch. The movie is not meant to be realistic.
Fortunately,
Mamma Mia! (2008), the film that that
sequel follows, has the same format, so that the sequel is not realistic is not
a problem. In fact, this demonstrates that the screenwriter of the sequel, who
happens to be Ol Parker (the same screenwriter of the Marigold Hotel movies),
was capable of carrying forward a story without stretching it too far. In fact,
Parker did not write Mamma Mia! So
his faithfulness to that movie in writing the sequel is all the more
impressive, and this leaves the question of his lack of fidelity in writing The Second Best Exotic Hotel even more
perplexing because he knew how to extend a story without stretching it too far.
By the way, both sequels have
what may be Parker’s signature point: pure happiness without some sadness is
not possible in life, so a film that is too saccharine can buck the suspension
of disbelief. In Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again,
some sadness is present because Donna has died and she is missed. The film even
includes Donna’s ghost, as if to drive home the point that even the happiness
of a wedding contains some sadness. In The
Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, Muriel Donnally knows she will die soon;
this can be inferred from her reaction coming out of the examination room at a
clinic. Maggie Smith marvelously underplays Donnally’s reaction, which actually
adds to its significance. In acting, sometimes less is more. Donnally returns
to her room during the wedding reception, presumably for medical reasons and
also to write Sonny a letter because she is leaving early the next morning to
return home to Britain presumably because she knows she is dying. Again, Parker
inserts sadness in a wedding scenario. I contend that this is no accident; he
is making a statement. Unfortunately, the performance mode at the wedding
reception can undercut the suspension of disbelief concerning Donnally’s
dramatic plight. If the other hotel customers are really performers, then so
too is Maggie Smith.
In conclusion, screenwriting a sequel best
includes both a lot of study of the original firm and the willingness be
constrained so as to retain a mooring. Of course, a screenwriter and director
may prefer to have a free hand in putting together a sequel, but the cost may
be glitches in the suspension of disbelief, by which a viewer becomes engrossed
in a story-world rather than being conscious of watching a movie.
