"The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel," the acclaimed independent movie hit of the summer, is the next featured film at the 1891 Fredonia Opera House. It will be screened on Saturday at 8 p.m. and Tuesday at 7:30 p.m. as part of the Opera House Cinema Series.
"The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel" follows a group of British retirees who decide to spend their retirement years in less expensive and seemingly exotic India. Enticed by advertisements for the newly restored Marigold Hotel and bolstered by visions of a life of leisure, they arrive to find the palace a shell of its former self. Though the new environment is less luxurious than imagined, they are forever transformed by their shared experiences, discovering that life and love can begin again when you let go of the past. Based on the 2004 novel, "These Foolish Things," the film stars Academy Award winners Judi Dench and Maggie Smith, Academy Award nominee Tom Wilkinson, and Bill Nighy and Dev Patel.
Claudia Puig, in USA Today, calls the film "a refreshing, mature fairy tale with a top-notch ensemble cast." Roger Ebert, in the Chicago Sun-Times, calls it "a charming, funny and heartwarming movie ... a smoothly crafted entertainment that makes good use of seven superb veterans." Lisa Schwarzbaum, in Entertainment Weekly, calls it a "lulling, happy-face story of retirement-age self-renewal, set in a shimmering, weltering, jewel-colored India." Stephen Holden, in the New York Times, says "besides its sterling cast, its ace in the hole is its pungent depiction of Jaipur's teeming streets, which give the movie a blinding splash of color." Rated PG-13 for sexual content and language, "The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel" runs 124 minutes.
Article Photos
Submitted Photo
The Opera House Cinema Series is sponsored by Lake Shore Savings Bank. Tickets are available at the door for $7 (adults), $6.50 (seniors & Opera House members) and $5 (students) the night of each screening. A book of ten movie passes is available for $60 at the door or online at www.fredopera.org. For more information, call the Opera House Box Office at 679-1891. The Series continues with Woody Allen's "To Rome With Love" on Aug. 11 & 14; and the critically acclaimed "Moonrise Kingdom" on Aug. 18 & 21.
Chautauqua County's only performing arts center presenting its own programming year-round, the 1891 Fredonia Opera House is a member-supported not-for-profit organization located in Village Hall in downtown Fredonia. For a complete schedule of events, visit www.fredopera.org.
