The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel is the sequel to (surprise!) The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel.  You never saw the first movie?  Neither did I.  No worries.  There's no hard-to-follow plot or anything you really need to know before you see the second movie.  The cast includes Judi Dench, Maggie Smith, and Richard Gere.  If nothing else, I figured it would be nice to see Richard Gere, and it sure was.  ;)

In the movie, British retirees actually move to the hotel to live.  The hotel is located in India.  While the hotel was much less luxurious than it claimed to be, it was full of character and charm that was hard for the residents to resist.  I found the enthusiastic manager Sonny to be a bit annoying at times, but his charm did start to grow on me a little.  And so did most of the characters, who were just trying to enjoy the rest of their lives and find a little happiness.  The highlight of the movie was the colorful traditional Indian wedding of Sonny and his fiance Sunaina.  The wedding dance was especially entertaining.

While The Second Best Marigold Movie was certainly not the best movie I've ever seen (not even close), it was cute and at times funny too.  And it did a good job in capturing the rich culture of India.  :)

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