The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel: Critic Reviews

"Eat Gray Love"...the whole enterprise [is] too platitudinous, but with powerhouse actors like Dench, Nighy and Wilkinson, even a critic can agree it's better to be plucky than a sour stick-in-the-mud.

[It] follows in the footsteps of countless other quaint, lengthily titled dollops of cinematic comfort food aimed at well-settled audiences looking for a little vicarious, AARP-approved spunk. Not that there's anything wrong with that.

The superb cast still cannot save a weak story.

There's little that's surprising about the film - everyone ends up pretty much where you'd guess - but that predictable quality becomes part of the pleasure of watching it, like a book that's happily reread.

By dropping a classic "Brits abroad" story into modern, urban India, "Marigold" brings chaotic energy to what would otherwise be merely cozy and predictable.

Your parents probably don't want to go to The Avengers this weekend (and that's okay!) but audiences can do far worse for themselves than to take a quick cinematic trip to John Madden's The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel.

It's comfort food filmmaking, designed to satiate the appetite of its specific audience.

It's hard to complain too much when your leads are Dench and Smith, Nighy and Wilkinson - all giving an actor's master class in the power of doing just enough.

It's a film about people of a certain age; as it happens, they're all played by the creme de la creme of U.K. actors of a certain age. What jolly luck!

Fabulously acted retiree drama will appeal more to parents.

As mild, comforting and vaguely colonial as beans on toast, The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel brings together some of Britain's top-shelf acting treasures for a story of late-life awakenings and self-discovery in India.

Moviegoers of a certain age are eager to see themselves reflected on screen, no matter how banal that reflection looks.

They're not super; they're superannuated 'Avengers.' If I had to put money on which film would still be standing in theaters come Labor Day, it would be this one.

If Carl from 'Up' bumped into 'Shirley Valentine'; if 'Eat Pray Love''s Liz Gilbert located a personality; if John Madden echoed his artful juggle from 'Shakespeare in Love' -- oh, wait, he did...

Pretty much anyone with an AARP card will relate to this movie in some way and therefore adore it.

The production looks good with its bright colors, the locale is, indeed, exotic and the acting is serviceable but the script...has no life to it.

The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel may not be capable of living up to every word in the title, but it does make for one engaging escape, no matter your age.

An esteemed ensemble cast of British veterans elevates this modestly charming saga.

At its finest sitting back and allowing the gifted performers an opportunity to feel around the situations, usually discovering the most precise emotions to play.

The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel is an ersatz experience, a commingling of forced uplift and exotica, but it's moving anyway.

This movie is sure to appeal to an older crowd, and it's great that a film has been made for their demographic. One just wishes it were a little better than this one.

It's a cup of tea made no less satisfying by the fact that you'll know how it's going to taste every sip of the way.

A dream team ensemble cast of British acting superstars gives a predictable story of displaced retirees spark and depth in this cozy tale.

It's a sweet-tempered folly in which all's well that ends well.