The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel - Essay Example

The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel Gender, Age, and Culture Examined through the Exotic Introduction The of the movie tells the viewer the best thing about the perspective of this film. The film is about an adventure that is subtle, yet filled with rich character studies that examine age and cultural diversity The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel (2011) is about the disenfranchised elderly in the UK who are looking for a way to still have a place in the world. The contrast between the elderly people who go to stay at the hotel and these same goals found in the young man who is trying to get the business of the hotel off the ground is well illustrated in the film. In addition to aspects of gender, age, and culture, the film explores the plight of someone who has a same sex sexual preference who lived his life without the fulfillment of love because of social class and cultural barriers that tore him from the man he would love for most of his life. Love is explored on a number of levels, discussing sexual identity and social position as they can be related one to the other. The film The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel (2011) has a rich foundation from which to study various aspects of cultural anthropology from the perspectives of gender, age, culture, and sexual identity. Through an examination of this film, stereotypes that have emerged from colonialism and the changes that have occurred through Westernization become important parts of the development of the story and the characters. Growing Old The first aspect of the movie that is most obvious is the discussion of how older people can very easily become disenfranchised as they age out of their careers or marriage arrangements. One of the couples, played by Bill Nighy and Penelope Wilton, lost all of their money on a venture that they invested in with their daughter (IMDB). As he went into retirement, they found they could not afford anything but a small home intended for people who were infirm and unable to fully take care of themselves. They choose to follow an advertisement on the internet where a hotel in India was willing to pay for their flights in exchange for them living at the hotel. Dame Judi Dench plays a woman who had entrusted all of her decisions to her husband and upon his passing found that he had left her penniless (IMDB). Rather than imposing on her children and in the process losing her freedom, she too chooses to go to India. The situation of the couple and of Dench’s character show how the event of getting older can lead to situations where deep changes in life can occur. The culture of the elderly is a conflicting space in which older people, through the losses that they incur and through the choices they have made during their lifetime, might be left without the means with which to continue their standard of living. The hotel presents a solution to this problem by giving them a beautiful, yet affordable place to live that also allows them to explore a new world where they can feel useful and vibrant. When they reach the hotel, however, they find that they have bought into a fantasy and the hotel is falling apart. They meet a young owner of the hotel played by Dev Patel who is working hard to make the hotel work. He is searching for the same things as the older people he has invited to stay at the hotel. He is trying to find a use for his skills and be a contributing member of society. The character played by Maggie Smith is a good compliment to Patel’s character. Smith was once a servant and nanny for a family, running the household and taking care of the domestic part of their lives, including the children. Because they see her as too old for the position, they replace her and she is displaced from her identity and purpose. Needing a hip replacement and not wanting to wait six months to get one, she goes to India, initially having animosity towards the Indian people. Her transformation not only makes India her home, she finds a place running the business side of the hotel for Patel’s character and creating new purpose in her life. Through their collaboration, Patel and Smith’s characters find purpose and place. Love and Class Systems Patel’s character also is used to show the contrast of the need for love as it transcends age. There are several love relationships that are developed during the film. The first is the relationship between husband and wife, Nighy and Wilton. They clearly loved each other very much at one time in their lives, but their new identities have emphasized the loss of companionship that they can no longer provide for one another. Nighy and Dench’s characters begin a relationship by sharing conversation and an appreciation for this new world they are finding in India. Wilton tries to connect to Tom Wilkenson’s character, a retired judge, because she finds his sophistication and social status appealing. They are clearly wrong for one another however, and this is emphasized more when he reveals that he is gay. When she is gently rejected by Wilkenson she realizes that she does not fit into her new surroundings and insists that her husband find a way for them both to go back home. His feelings for both the new culture and for Dench, however, make this a sad parting. Patel’s love life is defined by a woman who his mother feels is not good enough for him because she comes from a lower caste than he does. This begins a discussion about social class, generational gaps, and the changes that have occurred in India because of both Westernization and globalization. Caste is no longer relevant to Patel and his love interest. His mother’s interests in seeing him married from his own caste are based upon tradition, even though she was of a lower caste when she married his father. Meanwhile, Wilkenson’s character is dealing with the problems of social caste as they relate to colonialism when he and the man he fell in love with when he was young were separated because of their cultural, social, and ideological differences as were defined by their families. Social class plays a very important role in telling the story. Wilkenson represents lost love and a lifetime of being strangled by social class. This is in contrast to Patel’s efforts to break the caste system and do what he would choose to do by marrying a woman in a class beneath his own. Social class and the effects of colonialism are represented by Wilkenson, but also through showing how call centers have been built up in India and Westernization has begun to take hold and change the caste system. Patel’s girlfriend works in a call center which shows how the concept of work has changed in the nation of India. The changes in India hare highlighted through the discussion that is made about social class and emotional connections. This is further highlighted by a relationship that develops between Maggie Smith’s character and a young Dalit woman, the Dalit class being the lowest in India. Smith’s character acknowledges the woman which is rarely done in Indian culture. This makes the woman very appreciative of Smith’s character and she becomes grateful on a deep and meaningful level of Smith’s attention. The Class System The backdrop of colonialism, social class, and the class system creates a very interesting commentary on the social construction of India as it is influenced by their historic origins, but also in the process of being liberated through Western standards of individualism. The effects of colonialism are seen in the way in which there is a biased deference to the characters from the UK. The characters from India are largely stereotyped and undeveloped except for Patel, his girlfriend, and her brother, who are all represented as more developed. The one criticism that might be made is that the Dalit woman might have been more developed so that she could be seen beyond her subservient role as someone in the ‘untouchable’ class in India’s caste system. Her family is shown and there is an attempt to humanize her to a degree, but she is still stereotyped as someone of lower intelligence who seeks to please Smith’s character rather than becoming a friend or showing that there is more to her than her willingness to serve in a household. Even though there are some very well developed characters from India, there is still a sense that they are ‘other’. Patel’s character speaks with an accent that is stereotypical and when he speaks to the guests he tends to be very servile, despite his elevated social class within his own nation. The relationship between Patel and the guests is very reminiscent of the divisions made during colonization and shows him as a servant type rather than as a business owner type. Even as he begins to develop as a business owner, he wears a naru jacket and becomes typically Indian in relationship to colonial stereotypes of Indian behavior. Conclusion The film The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel is filled with cultural contrasts that exist at almost all levels of society. The plight of aging in the Western world is shown as people become disenfranchised and seek to find a way to put purpose back into their life. The problems of class as it relates to love are shown to have significant impact on each side of the discussion. The class system is examined for the ways in which it is changing in India and how this is having an impact on the development of the next generation. Contrasts and comparisons between age and how both being young and old impact love, a feeling of purpose, and the desire to continue to live a stimulating life are deeply examined in this light hearted film which despite its important cultural commentary and anthropological examinations of some very important ideas does not become tedious or overly serious to the point of alienating the audience. The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel is a film that explores cultural differences in ways that show that young or old, Indian or from the UK, people have the same hopes and dreams and want to lead lives that are purposeful and feel important to them. Word Count 1730 Works Cited IMDB. The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel. 2013. Web. 29 March 2013. The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel. Dir. John Madden. Perf. Judi Dench Tom Wilkenson, Bill Nighy, Penelope Wilton, Maggie Smith, Celia Imrie, and Dev Patel. Blueprint Pictures, 2011. DVD. Read More