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 full essay is at "The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel."
