Almost There: Maggie Smith in "The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel"
Wednesday, December 1, 2021 at 11:54AM 
It's time to wish a happy anniversary to The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel. John Madden's unlikely box-office juggernaut was first screened ten years ago on the Sorrento Incontro Internazionale del Cinema. Truth be told, it's not a fantastic flick, adapting a Deborah Moggach novel into a toothless feel-good comedy that reeks of good intentions corroded by colonialist condescension. Where it triumphs, however, is in casting. Madden managed to gather a remarkable ensemble, made up of charismatic British thespians who could deliver great performances with their eyes closed and a hand tied behind their back: Judi Dench! Maggie Smith! Bill Nighy! Penelope Wilton! Tom Wilkinson! And more.
Indeed, their collective work singlehandedly makes the movie into a middlebrow delight. From that collection of beloved British entertainers, Maggie Smith probably came closest to an Oscar nomination…
Time is running out for everyone in The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, both young and old. On the one hand, there's Sonny Kapoor, an idealistic entrepreneur, and manager of a failing hotel in Jaipur, India. His business model consists of outsourcing the world's ailing elders, selling his establishment as an elderly home, a place of rest and repose where wealthy foreigners can come live their few remaining years. As for his guests, they're each facing mortality, staring in the face of death as it approaches at an increasing speed. Of course, this is a comedy, so the morbidity is kept at bay by an earnest desire for collective joy. Through trials and tribulations, Sonny and his cadre of elderly British people find autumnal contentment and a sense of community.
Not that you would think Maggie Smith's Muriel is in search of company. Not from her first scene, at least. Presented as a prototypical curmudgeon old lady, she's a racist menace laying around in a hospital corridor. Like a future Brexit voter, she refuses the aid of a Black doctor, demanding to be seen by a proper British man and going so far as to say that no washing will ever clean that skin color away. It's an odious introduction that Smith plays to the hilt, illuminating the ugly side of a thorny woman who lets her feelings of helplessness manifest in acerbic prejudice. However, unlike many a Smith character, Muriel can't back up her lousy attitude with either aristocratic pedigree or deep pockets.
A former housekeeper, she's low on funds and in need of a hip surgery – a cheap one, if possible. In the end, that's what draws her toward Sonny's establishment. While every other character takes on their Indian pilgrimage in pursuit of happiness, Smith's Muriel is motivated by more pragmatic concerns. No wonder she's the grumpiest of the group, a veritable Scrooge who trudges along with a bag full of English treats like some sort of xenophobic food-based comfort blanket. As she astringently states: "If I can't pronounce it, I don't want to eat it." It's a testament to Smith's screen presence and comedic timing that Muriel is at all bearable during these early scenes.
Another important detail is how the actress illustrates her character's fears, the genuine insecurity behind her more condemnable behaviors. When discussing the surgery with her doctor Smith weaves a thread of anxiety through the barbed one-liners, using her limited physicality – she spends most of the movie in a wheelchair – to suggest a woman desperate to shield herself from pain, impotence, infirmity. When one of the travel companions falls down at dinner, her proclamation that she's in hell is played for laughs but not denuded of pathos. Later on, recuperating from the procedure, she looks on the verge of tears, either from ache or an anguished sense of unmoored displacement.
It's true she may not be doing much in the way of acting pyrotechnics, but Smith shows us a woman who hasn't known much comfort in life but still yearns for it, still needs it. At times, it feels as if castmates like Dench and Wilkinson are given opportunities to work within a milieu of delicate understatement that Muriel's writing precludes her from exploring. The script demands Smith be a blunt instrument for much of her screen time, only gradually revealing new facets to the character. Still, the actress knows how to build a foundation for Muriel's softening, going beyond the frailty of a sick old lady with a bad hip. The first signs of true change happen upon visiting her maid's family at the young woman's request.
Flabbergasted by the kindness shown to her, Muriel reflects on her own cruelty, and Smith allows the shadow of shame to emerge. That feeling percolates, and blossoms into a flower of light. Muriel drops her emotional armor and reminisces about her life as a housekeeper, how her purpose eroded under the pressure of age and obsolescence. It's a touching monologue that Smith kills with the finesse the script has deprived her of until then. Each word hurts on its way out, but she still says them, an act of self-punishing vulnerability in the form of confessional musings. Afterward, it's like a weight has been taken off her back. Smith's entire disposition changes, becoming brighter, smiles erupting from her stern visage.
She also becomes more actively observant, modulating her reactions in a soft register that avoids the pitfalls of overt bitterness. Furthermore, Smith's Muriel grows to be the hotel's foremost advocate, its valorous savior. This dynamic would be expanded upon in the sequel, a film much more focused on Smith, where she gets to deliver what's perchance her best performance of the 2010s and finds a brilliant screen partner in the energized Dev Patel. The first Best Exotic Marigold Hotel may not be as good a showcase, but it's got its charms, and Smith is hard to resist. That being said, it's a pity how insular her arc is, preventing the actress from interacting with most of her veteran colleagues. You have Judi and Maggie in one movie, and they barely interact? What a shame.
While The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel had its word premiere in 2011, its proper release at home and abroad came the following year, which means Maggie Smith campaigned for a nomination in the 85th Academy Awards honoring the films of 2012. Well, "campaigned" might be too strong a word, though that didn't matter much when Downton Abbey was still on TV, cementing Smith's fame and modern popularity. She was recognized by the British Film independent Awards and was nominated for the SAG. Indeed, she got four(!) nominations that year for her individual performances on film and TV, as well as the work in both ensembles. Towards the end of the season though, AMPAS ignored Smith. They nominated Amy Adams in The Master, Sally Field in Lincoln, Anne Hathaway in Les Misérables, Helen Hunt in The Sessions, and Jacki Weaver in Silver Linings Playbook. "Fantine" took the gold. Dame Maggie Smith hasn't been nominated since 2001 for Gosford Park.
The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel is streaming on Disney+ and Starz.
Reader Comments (13)
Judi Dench was easily MVP of the film.
I cannot think of a more bland turn in Smith's filmography. Dench is great, though!
Amy Camus -- I agree. I also think Wilkinson and Nighy are better than Smith in the same movie. However, she seemed like the best choice for an Almost There write-up. I doubt Dench ever came close to cracking that Best Actress lineup. Smith was a likely contender, along with Kidman and Dowd, for that fifth Best Supporting Actress slot that ended up going to Weaver.
Andrew Carden -- Even as a Smith fan, I must confess I can think of a lot of blander works in her filmography. I've never been convinced by her LADY IN THE VAN turn, MY OLD LADY is a snooze and, while beautiful, she sleepwalks through CLASH OF THE TITANS. And that's just the tip of the iceberg. However, I always think she's watchable and, when she's on, she's beyond words.
It's a funny turn and the line "can't pronounce it" is delivered in a way only Smith could make humorous but it's like she's been on repeat mode since Gosford Park,she certainly hasn't challenged herself as Judi Dench has done,I would have nominated her though in 2015 for The Lady in the Van where she is given a bit more to do with her backstory and plays the role like a flute and is hilarious but even then I am not bowled over.
I remember liking Smith in this and finding the whole movie to be sweet and charming. I mean, there's a scene where Dench is walking with children in nature! How delightful is that! Granted she isn't on board with kids following her, but still!
Did I want her to be nominated? Honestly, I would've been fine with her in the line-up (especially over Weaver). And maybe Wilkinson in Supporting Actor, as well.
Claudio -- i love that you sometimes choose performances that you wouldn'thave nominated yourself (as long as they were conceivably in the mix) and think this is agreat write up.
Maggie Smith is the best part of this movie.
I distinctly remember laughing out loud at some of here deliveries.
Tom Wilkinson's gay romance warmed my heart.
Everything else, Dench included, is very forgettable.
Loved this performance, particularly over both movies - she enriches it with such different shades and I agree that the second movie has her finest moments but taken as a whole, it's a complete character and journey.
Agree that she doesn't get enough to do with Dench in this movie - at the end she says 'we haven't talked much you and I' and I was like YES - that's my main problem with a loveable, charming film that delights and entertains me to no end.
To everyone suggesting she doesn't challenge herself, I resent that notion - you take what you can get offered and she's still acting at 87... Dench gets first pick of the parts and they fight over what's left - if Tea with the Dames is to be believed.
She's certainly going for it still with four films in the pipeline - all of which look to be different in their characters for her and I expect to see her back on the Oscar circuit for A German Life at least.
Thanks for the beautiful write-up - looking forward to Nicole Kidman's for the Paperboy :D what a lineup this year could have been...
😂
Not even remotely close to being nominated.
Pure "entertainment trash" for the aged.
I LOVED her in this. Totally nomination worthy.
For those that say she doesn't always challenge herself, I agree. But not here. There's a lot going on.
I think Maggie's great here, and is using her senior citizen movie star persona to great effect, while shading in a very different character from Violet or Constance. She also threads the line of adding depth to this film, while still knocking the comedy out of the park. I tend to think of the Best Exotic Marigold as a film that, while it doesn't surprise, is at the top of its form. I also like that it's squarely aimed at adults and isn't afraid to be maudlin. It just feels like a film we are seeing less of, and I'm always happy to go to the box office to support it.
I think part of what kept Smith from getting in was how uncertain the 4th and 5th spots were that season. There was so much shifting that things never settled. I also think she was hurt by the last minute push for Skyfall. Dench getting in at BAFTA, and I suspect getting big votes from the British contingent of the academy, likely hurt Smith's chances, as that's who she needed to get in. I do wonder if it's why she and Dench both came up short on nomination morning?
I do hope she'll make it back as a nominee one day. I hope her upcoming film, A German Life, can gain some traction.
I always find it weird when people say that Judi Dench challenges herself more than Maggie Smith.
Where exactly and how has Judi Dench challenged herself more?
Just like Maggie, she mostly plays bitches or reasonable old ladies (or a mix of both).
The difference is that Maggie's bitches are superior.
Programming note: The Best Exotic Marigold Motel is available for FREE on YouTube, although with commercials.