Movie Review: The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel

Where to start?  Easy...five stars.

This movie had it all.  The humor that cracked me up, and the sentimental moments when it pulled at my heartstrings.

"...everything will be alright in the end, and if it's not alright, it's not the end." Sonny in "The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel".

A group of Biritish retirees get duped into buying into a grand retirement in India.  Once there, they disocer that Sonny, a young, idealistic Indian has coaxed them to a hotel that will be grand in the future. Dust covers most of its old, crumbling magnificence.

Sonny has problems of his own.  He's in love, but afraid to say the words to a beautiful young Indian woman--who his mother does not approve of.  She knows who he will marry and she already has it arranged.

Judi Dench stole the movie, her character recently widowed and running out of money, facing a complex situation in her senior years. She gets a job--the first one she's ever had, and she writes a blog so her son can follow her new life in another country.  He voice narrates part of the story, and it is beautiful.  Passages about life, about growing old, about people...and about the truths that we come by over the passing of years.

The cast of characters were wonderful.  It was a mixed bag of personalities, all playing out in the colorful and impossibly crowded world in India.

The audience at the cinema was mostly older--50 and above.  It makes me hope that the younger crowd doesn't pass this one by.  They might learn a little, gain a little insight into what lies ahead, and they just might laugh out loud-- like we did..

Excellent, excellent movie. :-)

Special Effects in Books vs. Movies

It hit me tonight like a pie in the face--something I couldn't ignore, while I was watching White Christmas.  The difference between books or old movies, and the current crop of movie offerings.

White Christmas, like so many old movies, tells a story that brings characters to life, reveals their flaws, and entertains without relying on special effects.  

Books--so very much like old movies, rely on character building, and the reader's mind.  And there has to be a story--because there is no huge budget for Hollywood style special effects compensating for a lack of a good, solid, story.  

Not that I don't love a good scifi movie now and again, full of things that are food for the imagination.  But such, accompanied by a story that makes me laugh, cry, and wish for more...are just so few and far-between.

As a writer, I think it is my job to feed the reader enough to ignite their imaginations so they can set about creating their own special effects.  I want them to put a face to the protagonist, and I want them to see the world in which my characters live, but I can't give them so many details that it is all laid out for them.  I want them to see things relative to the world in which they live.  If I overwrite details, then I have stolen that intricate part out of the relationship between the reader and the book--the intimacy of living in a fictional world that is customized by their imaginations.  Those are real special effects.