Product Details

• Actors: Judi Dench, Bill Nighy, Maggie Smith, Tom Wilkinson, Dev Patel
• Directors: John Madden
• Writers: Deborah Moggach, Ol Parker
• Producers: Caroline Hewitt, Graham Broadbent, Jeff Skoll, Jonathan King, Peter Czernin
• Format: AC-3, Blu-ray, Dolby, DTS Surround Sound, Dubbed, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
• Language: English (DTS 5.1), French (Dolby Digital 5.1), Spanish (Dolby Digital 5.1)
• Subtitles: English, French, Spanish
• Dubbed: English, French, Spanish
• Region: Region A/1 (Read more about DVD/Blu-ray formats.)
• Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rated: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
• Studio: 20th Century Fox
• DVD Release Date: September 18, 2012
• Run Time: 124 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1,652 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B005S9EJ46
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,564 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)
  • #58 in Movies & TV > Blu-ray > Comedy
• Learn more about "The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel [Blu-ray]" on IMDb

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Some of the finest actors in England lend their formidable talents to The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, a charming fish-out-of-water yarn. The Brits, who include Evelyn (Judi Dench), Muriel (Maggie Smith), Douglas (Bill Nighy), and Graham (Tom Wilkinson), are planning retirement in a less expensive country. After "thorough research on the Internet," the group chooses what looks to be a grand, peaceful retreat, the Best Exotic Marigold Hotel. It turns out that the bloom is off this marigold--it's shabby, antiquated, and as chaotic as the city in India, Jaipur, where it is set. Who can adapt to this very different retirement experience, and who founders? That question lies at the heart of the plot of The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel. The cast is uniformly superb, as the retirees bond and bicker and fall out and then try to encourage one another. And Dev Patel (Slumdog Millionaire) shines as Sonny, the barely-holding-it-together Marigold Hotel manager. Patel and Tena Desae, who plays Sunaina, his girlfriend, are charming yet face adaptation struggles of their own, in a modern-day India still tied strongly to its traditions but rapidly charging into the future. And the young Indians also seem to represent the energetic future, as the Brits represent the old world that's fast falling. At its heart, The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, deftly directed by John Madden, is an uplifting journey, allowing the viewer to feel what the retirees are discovering on the screen. When Evelyn sighs, "Nothing here has worked out quite as I expected," Muriel crisply replies, "Most things don't. But sometimes what happens instead is the good stuff." The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel is most definitely the good stuff. --A.T. Hurley

Product Description

An award-winning, all-star cast, led by Judi Dench, Bill Nighy, Tom Wilkinson, and Maggie Smith, lights up this "buoyant comedy laced with genuine emotion." (Peter Travers, Rolling Stone) When seven cash-strapped seniors decide to "outsource" their retirement to a resort in far-off India, friendship and romance blossom in the most unexpected ways. Smart, life-affirming and genuinely charming, THE BEST EXOTIC MARIGOLD HOTEL is a "true classic that reminds us that it's never too late to find love and a fresh beginning at any age." (Rex Reed, The New York Observer)

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

344 of 349 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Great Fun March 25, 2012

By Andrew Desmond VINE™ VOICE

Format:DVD

"The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel" is great feel good film. I found it to be quite captivating and am very glad that I made the effort to see it. I recommend it to others.

In brief, the film revolves around the coming together of seven elderly and somewhat impecunious Britons who, of their own volition, and quite separately, decide to retire to The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel in Jaipur. They discovered the place on the internet and, as we all should know, the internet can sometimes be a bit misleading. Indeed, this is the case here. The hotel had been billed as a marvelous palace when, in fact, it was tired and chaotic.

The seven visitors form the key members of the cast and are led by Judi Dench, Maggie Smith and Bill Nighy. Some can adjust to the way of life in India while others fail completely. Along the way, we are given a peek into daily life in India in all its colour and noise.

The movie is often funny but always enthralling. I will say no more as to the plot. I have no wish to spoil this film for others. However, I will say that it is money and time very well spent.

183 of 188 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A thoroughly delightful film. May 6, 2012

By Miles D. Moore TOP 1000 REVIEWERVINE™ VOICE

Format:DVD

John Madden's "The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel" may not be a great film, but it is a thoroughly enjoyable one that will keep you entertained from beginning to end. It isn't challenging in the slightest, which has caused many critics to downgrade it, or damn it with faint praise. All I know is that the audience in the packed theater where I saw the film applauded at the end, and I applauded with them.

By now everyone knows the story of "The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel." A group of English retirees decides for various reasons (mostly financial) to move to India. The retirement hotel they choose sounds glorious from the brochure, but turns out to be a rundown, if once-grand, hulk run by a young Indian with much more enthusiasm than skill. A lot of comedy ensues, and a little conflict and tragedy; attitudes are changed, old bonds broken, and new bonds forged.

The ensemble cast of British character actors ranges among the super-famous (Judi Dench, Maggie Smith), the moderately famous (Tom Wilkinson, Bill Nighy, Penelope Wilton) and the not-so-famous (Ronald Pickup, Celia Imrie), with the addition of one young rising star (Dev Patel, of "Slumdog Millionaire" fame). All of them are as charming, funny and touching as they possibly could be. Meanwhile, Madden and screenwriter Ol Parker do an excellent job of blending and articulating the various plotlines, aided by the gorgeous photography by Ben Davis and the insinuating score by Thomas Newman. Considering the effort all these master professionals made to give an audience a good time, it seems churlish to give "The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel" any less than five stars.

127 of 132 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Couldn't be better! June 7, 2012

By Janet A. Law

Format:DVD

I saw TBEMH at a theater in a community well-known for its attractiveness to retirees. Most of the audience seemed to be over sixty. I am in my 70s. The reactions I heard were all about relating to the characters and the dialogue. Most of the dialogue was more original than Maggie Smith's comment about green bananas, which I've heard dozens of times before. Having visited northeastern India and felt its overwhelming splendor and squalor, I was reminded of much of what I saw there. India itself seemed to be one of the characters, and was ably supported by both young and old Indian characters but also stood on its own with the visuals and the cacophony. The Hindu funeral made me wish I could have one too when my time comes. This is a movie I will see again and again just for the pleasure of seeing people and places that make me feel that it's really OK to be 70 and "out there."