Friday, May 18, 2012

Outsourcing Retirement


Thursday night, I met up with four of my stitchery friends for dinner and a movie--we ate at the Tower Cafe and then walked a few feet to the Tower Theater to see The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel.

Have you heard of it? A lot of people haven't, although our local PBS station has been promoting it. The Tower Theater is one of oldest theaters in the Sacramento area and would probably be classified as an "art house." In other words, they screen a lot of really good, high quality, foreign made and indie movies that don't necessarily make it to the local multi-plex--not until they win Academy Awards, at any rate.

As we--the five of us stitchers--are all approaching our retirement years (one of us is actually THERE already), we probably enjoyed the movie more than a group of "kids" in their 20s and 30s. Having seen the dips and dives our retirement investments have taken over the last few years, it's easy enough to relate to the film.

The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel is a British film. Most of the characters in the movie are facing retirement or loss, and their economic futures aren't quite as rosy as they could wish. They are offered the opportunity to travel to India to spend their later years at a hotel serving "the elderly & beautiful." I don't want to give away the plot, but the movie focuses on how each character reacts to the life changes that face them and how they interact with the each other and the people and culture around them.

All of us left the theater talking about how much we enjoyed the film. I bet you would too! If The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel is playing anywhere in your area, go see it--I'm sure you'll enjoy it.

5 comments:

Judy Roach said...

My husband and I saw this movie a few weeks ago (in Australia) and absolutely loved it. I enjoy anything with Judi Dench in it, but all the actors were wonderful. I am retiring in 5 weeks time, but I won't be going to India. Just to my sewing room!
Judy

Anna said...

I have been waiting for the movie to come out since I first discovered an article about it...thank you for the review! I love British movies and TV!C

Shirley--Knot-y Embroidery Lady said...

Sorry I was not up to going with last night. Now I can hardly wait to see if it gets into Netflixs - watched Enchanted April the other day and loved it. Hugs

Julie said...

I loved the movie so much that I am going to take my mother-in-law. I thought the transformation of the Maggie Smith character was fantastic.
All the main characters were played by people in mainstream movies--the oldest guy in the Full Monty, the aging singer in Love Actually and the shy woman in Calendar Girls. Wonderful movie. Thanks for suggesting it, Kim.

Julie-Julia

Beverley said...

This film was HUGE in Britain Kim. Glad you enjoyed it. Bev.