I always feel a bit out of touch with the world when I go to the cinema as its usually an annual event for me and I find it an odd experience sitting in the dark munching away on sweets and maintaining a dignified silence.
This is a film about a group of ageing Brits who go to live in India. The cinema must have thought that the audience were all a bit past it as well because it was so loud my ears were still ringing an hour later. I almost wished I had been a hearing aid user because I could have turned it down a bit.
Anyway, apart from the volume, everything else was lovely. The company of Melinda and Helen, the half price ticket courtesy of a link from Jo and the pizza and hospitality afterwards.
This film doesn't seem to have had critical acclaim but I found a lot to enjoy in it. The clashing of cultures, values and classes was rather well done. These are interesting times to live in where the rigid old ways are starting to crumble under pressure from the modern world but they are still sufficiently in tact that they can be experienced.
There is a limit to the depth of character it is possible to reveal in 118 minutes and films tend to be a bit superficial which is why I don't care much for the genre but I think quite a lot is packed in here if you look for it. Of course there is the obvious funny scene of an ageing Lothario preparing for a night of seduction and falling over in the shower and the old racist who has a sudden change of heart. But stereotypes are so because such people do exist as a type and they have become what they are in response to the knocks that life has dealt to them and to others like them.
The cast is very strong, particularly the women. And its sad but true that the aged become invisible and a nuisance in Britain. Outsourcing old age is a really good idea.
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