The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel

I had the chance to check out this film on its opening weekend in Minneapolis. I went with Daisy to see the movie in Edina.

When we got to 50th and France, we noticed tons of cars and people everywhere! Thankfully, we'd carpooled over there so we only needed 1 parking spot - not that one was easily had. We circled for a bit and eventually found one, but by that point, we'd already missed the showing we were planning to see. The good news was that there was another one just over an hour later. We went straight to the theater and bought our tickets, then had a chance to wander around and do some shopping.

The only place we made it to was Sur La Table. We looked at all of the beautiful dishware and linens, and marveled at the array of interesting tools. Daisy found some flavor extracts. I found these cool things:

Check out the cocktail napkins on either side of this display. If I had a party coming up, I'd be loving these Keep Calm and Freak Out Napkins around. Imagine if I mixed them together in the napkin holder - you'd never which one you'd get!

I also noticed this awesome display - turquoise, and red, and polka dots? Seriously - did these people send a scout to my place to see exactly what I would want??? AHHHH! Overload!

So, after wandering Sur La Table, we went in to see the movie. We got into the theater about 20 minutes before the show began. The theater got very full and it was a little surprising to see so many older people collected all together. We were definitely the youngest people around.

 The movie was awesome. I definitely recommend it! This is a travel movie I can really get behind. The basic premise is that there are 7 people, which is five singles and one couple, who are Brits of retirement age who travel to India for a variety of motivations. While in Jaipur, they stay at The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel for the Elderly and Beautiful. The hotel is marketed for older people from other parts of the world looking to retire.

The movie was funny, heartwarming and enthralling. I was engaged in the story throughout the movie, which hasn't been the case sometimes recently. There are some serious and touching moments throughout the film, though the basic theme is comedy. We also see each of the characters grow in some way, or make a decision before the end of the movie that they couldn't have at the beginning. With an all-star line up including Judi Dench, Bill Nighy (the rockstar from Love Actually), Tom Wilkinson (the colonel from The Patriot) and Maggie Smith (of Harry Potter and Downton Abbey fame, not to mention Hook!). The movie was great and I'm keeping my fingers crossed for a wider release soon!