sent from: London, UK. destination: Victoria, BC, Canada

We went to see ‘The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel‘, feature an astonishing cast of British actors; set in India, the contrivance being that these 8 people have their old age ‘outsourced’ to India. Having recently traveled to India with my parents, I figured it would hit home, and sure enough my mother loved it. I was reminded of another film – Enchanted April – where a group of women from various classes and ages find themselves in an Italian castle. Like that film, this was amiable, gorgeous, well acted, but slight, small. You could see the jokes coming a mile away, and the stories were by-the-numbers. Still, after the setup and before the inevitable conclusion, the middle part of the film, with these actors walking around Jaipur reflecting on their lives and wondering what, exactly, had become of the last 40 or 50 years, had a quiet beauty and lyricism. In those moments I was there, with them, walking beside them.