The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel

What was originally a malapropism ends the film and summarizes its theme: “There is no present like time.”
Our one great present is time, the time we have, life. In their various solitudes and couplings and triangles all the characters here resolve to make the most of their remaining time. Living fully in the present drinks life to the lees (Tennyson).
All the first film’s senior citizens are back, with a couple of new ones to shake things up: David Strathairn for Maggie Smith and Richard Gere for hotel manager Sonny’s mother. The main plot involves Sonny trying to attract US investment to add another hotel to his “chain” (making it two links) that caters to elderly have-nots trying to finish their days in style.
        The film’s formal structure is built around Sonny’s marriage. His commercial union threatens to make his romantic one secondary — but he recovers his balance and orchestrates both at the end.
One recurring issue is wouldbe lovers’ fear. The Judi Dench and Bill Nighy characters are almost stymied by his shyness. His potential as a lover is like his public speaking—he can’t do it without an outside feed, which she manages to exploit. Ronald Pickup and his partner have to overcome her fear of monogamy. Penelope Wilton pretends to a romance she doesn’t yet have — to give her the confidence to initiate another one. But she’s afraid to approach her Ex without the pretence of one. Celie Imre’s character is the most courageous, switching between two elderly Indian men before settling on the more attractive — but lower class — driver. Nor is fear the preserve of the old. Sonny almost runs his engagement aground with his jealousy of a successful friend.
The spectacular wedding at the end not only seals both the romantic and business plots. It infuses the film with a spectacular celebration of life, colour and energy. The dance combines traditional and contemporary movements. All the fogeys join in. They’ll get the most of their present, time. That point is poignantly emphasized by a late scene which flirts with a principal’s death but pulls back. For now.
Come to think of it, isn’t that what a sequel essentially is? A second gift of the time that seemed to have been irredeemably spent in the first film. As characters can have as many beginnings as their time allows, a film can have as many sequels … as their audience attends