Comparing The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel and Notting Hill

Transport only becomes an issue when leaving Notting Hill. Having discovered Anna’s boyfriend has arrived in London, William leaves the Ritz and boards a bus. Typically, the bus is employed in films to symbolise Britishness. However, in ‘Notting Hill’ this is not the case: the bus featured is not an instantly recognisable but something more modern; and as the bus pulls away an advert for Anna’s latest film is revealed to cover the bus’s rear, suggesting that the London bus has lost its symbolic potency for the British and has been subsumed by a globalised media. Racing to the hotel in Max’s car to catch Anna before she leaves London, the characters argue over the best route, and the high level of traffic and one-way systems in central London forces them to make dangerous turns against the traffic and, in one case, to physically obstruct traffic. The urban environment of central London is thus much more confusing and hostile than the simple rural pleasures of Notting Hill. In ‘The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel’, Britain comes off little better in Madden’s film. In shoring up the colours of India, its smiling faces, and youth, Britain is left cold, grey, and unforgiving. Hospitals are full, retirement comes late, and children are reluctant to support their parents emotionally or financially. It is worth the price of admission just for the glorious Indian scenery. During the film, Wilkinson’s character describes “all the light, colours, and smiles” of the country and director John Madden captures them, along with the hustle and bustle of the neighbourhood, beautifully.

Julia Roberts and Hugh Grant, are known for their work in romantic comedies. Grant has had a very successful career in the romantic comedy genre too including the highly successful Brit rom-coms like ‘Notting Hill’. They have both been typecast as the leading man and lady in their films, although Grant’s roles are more similar than Roberts’s. In each film, he looks the same and plays variations of the same character. He has an instantly recognisable image and performance style - the floppy hair in terms of the appearance and the nervous, slightly posh man in terms of screen persona.  On the other hand, ‘The Best Marigold Hotel’ is the pleasure of the words is complimented by the acting of some of the most honoured veterans of British film and television, such as the Dames Judi Dench and Maggie Smith, as well as Tom Wilkinson, and Bill Nighy. The rest of the cast, which includes Dev Patel, most famous for “Slumdog Millionaire?”, are equally praiseworthy.

The love story of ‘Notting Hill’ brings together William Thacker, the English owner of a failing travel bookshop, and Anna Scott, an American actor and international film star, and through the ups and downs of their relationship contrasts their lifestyles. Anna’s world is marked by its global scale, its public spaces, and the high mobility of those who inhabit this world, and this is shown to be less desirable than the life of William’s in England, with its local, rural community, and its private spaces. The conclusion of the narrative comes with Anna’s acceptance of William’s lifestyle.  In ‘The Best Exotic Marigold’ sophisticated and sharp in the best tradition of British wit. It hinges on the idea of outsourcing the care and feeding of the British elderly to India. The story deals with a group of British seniors who, for a variety of reasons, leave England and relocate to a dilapidated old hotel in India.