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This 'Marigold Hotel' definitely second-best

Fans of the original "Best Exotic Marigold Hotel" will take great pleasure in catching up with the lovably flawed, rapidly aging Brits who arrived at that Indian oasis, run by an ambitious young man anxious to capitalize on "outsourced" old people from other nations.

Other viewers, not so much pleasure, I'm thinking.

"The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel" doesn't work well as a "stand-alone" movie.

You must see the first to better appreciate the sequel, a far less charming and road-already-traveled tale of new beginnings and modest self-affirmations.

The first "Marigold Hotel" - an ideal project for AARP to have produced had it ever entered the movie biz - puttered along on a pleasant dose of sentimentality and interesting characters, such as Tom Wilkinson's Graham Dashwood, a closeted civil servant returning to India after 30 years to find the man he left behind.

Dashwood's gone here, but the other characters remain, especially feisty Muriel Donnelly (Maggie Smith), now working with overenthusiastic hotel owner/manager Sonny (Dev Patel) in California to secure the assistance of hotel financier Ty Burley (David Strathairn) to expand the Marigold franchise to a second location.

Conflict occurs when Sonny's best pal Kushal (Shazad Latif) pre-emptively purchases the property Sonny wanted, setting off a skirmish that extends to Kushal possibly making a play for Sonny's extremely patient bride-to-be Sunaina (Tena Desai).

Yet, Sonny seems more preoccupied with the undercover inspector Ty Burley has dispatched to check out the Best Exotic Marigold Hotel to see if it's being properly managed.

When a grayingly handsome American named Guy Chambers (Richard Gere) arrives and claims to be working on a novel, Sonny concludes he must be the secret inspector and falls all over himself to be accommodating, even at the expense of ignoring another veddy British guest, the relatively youthful Lavinia Beech (Tamsin Greig), on a mission to see if the hotel might suit her elderly mum.

Yes, you can probably guess the obvious twist, but screenwriter Ol Parker (he also wrote the first film, adapting Deborah Moggach's novel) puts a slight spin on the spin.

Back at the Marigold, the polite couple of Evelyn (former "Q" Judi Dench) and Douglas (Bill Nighy) still hasn't sealed the romantic deal, even though the Rolling Stones' lyrics "time is on our side" no longer rings true.

Senior hottie Madge (Celia Imrie), who trades choice double-entendres with Guy Chambers, winds up choosing between two wealthy Indian suitors. Just as well, because Gere's graying gander goes gaga for Sonny's single mom, Mrs. Kapoor, played by appealing "The Lunchbox" star Lillete Dubey.

Then there's Norman (Ronald Pickup) and his partner Carol (Diana Hardcastle), whose quasi-commitment to an open relationship bodes bad for both.

Both "Marigold" movies are directed by John Madden, who guided "Shakespeare in Love" to a Best Picture Oscar over Steven Spielberg's "Saving Private Ryan."

Madden doesn't do much to make these characters pop and sizzle as they managed to do occasionally in the slightly grittier original.

Even the sequel's PG rating signifies its less racy content than the original's PG-13.

Nonetheless, the idea of an exotic Indian hotel as a metaphor for an elephant's graveyard plays out with benign pleasantry, occasionally spiced up with a tart sentence.

How did crusty Muriel enjoy her trip to America?

"It made death more tempting," she replies.

“The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel”

★ ★ ½

Starring: Dev Patel, Judi Dench, Maggie Smith, Bill Nighy, Penelope Wilton, Richard Gere, Tena Desae

Directed by: John Madden

Other: A 20th Century Fox release. Rated PG. 122 minutes

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