[7]

John Madden, the director of Shakespeare in Love, serves up an adaptation of Debora Moggach’s novel about an eclectic group of aging Brits who manage to turn their lives around for the better at a rundown hotel in India. I couldn’t argue with anyone claiming this movie is a pandering, formulaic feel-good dramedy — it is. But when you have the likes of Judi Dench, Maggie Smith, Tom Wilkinson, Bill Nighy, and Celia Imrie in your pandering feel-good movie, the whole thing goes down a lot more sincerely than one might imagine. I went into this movie in need of something light and hopeful, and it was just that.