The light-hearted comedy drama has managed to push the Hammer horror, The Woman in Black, off the top spot, which took in £1.9m and broke the record for the most successful British horror film ever.

The British-Indian retirement film has an outstanding veteran cast which includes the likes of Dame Judi Dench, Maggie Smith, Bill Nighy and Tom Wilkinson plus Slumdog Millionaire’s Dev Patel.

The film – which is based on Deborah Moggach’s novel  These Foolish Things – sees a group of elderly Brits looking for a cheap retirement home overseas. They are enticed by a misleading advert which claims the newly refurbished Marigold Hotel in Jaipur, India is perfect for a life of luxury. When they arrive however, it’s not as luxurious as they were made to believe.

The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, directed by John Madden (Shakespeare in Love, Captain Corelli’s Mandolin) has clearly been targeted at an older audience, which is pleasing to see.

It was filmed in India around Udaipur, Rajasthan, which was also the filming location of Octopussy (1983) and Gandhi (1982).

There have been very few films aimed at older people which have had huge box office success like this. One of the most popular OAP flicks of the past few years is Calendar Girls. The 2003 film exceeded £20m at the UK box office nine years ago. More recent films, which have an older audience in mind, include The Queen (Helen Mirren) and The King’s Speech (Colin Firth) which achieved similarly impressive takings.

Other top films in the UK Box office this week include The Muppets and Safe House. 

Before anything else there is the stellar cast of British oldsters. Judi Dench, Maggie Smith and Penelope Wilton and Celia Imrie represent the ladies, and the chaps are Tom Wilkinson, Bill Nighy, and Ronald Pickup. All over sixty, they play retirees who find themselves in such dire financial straits that living cheaply in India seems to be the best option.

Each of these characters has a back story that shows why Blighty simply won’t do. These tales take up the first twenty minutes of the film and are both funny and poignant. Evelyn, played by Judi Dench, finds that her recently deceased husband left her nothing but debts. She also finds herself completely at odds with the internet or wi-fi or whatever it’s called and the ‘dedicated helpline’ seems designed only to utterly befuddle her… and amuse us. Ronald Pickup’s lonely Norman goes speed dating pretending he is only aged 40, his much younger date quips: “You mean you were born in 1940!?” So, the group head for Jaipur where they all move into a small, slightly tatty, Indian palace that is now the The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel – “Now With Guests” – run by Dev Patel’s Sonny.

It’s a shame that in the years since Slumdog Millionaire Patel has only been in The Last Airbender, which by most accounts was execrable rubbish. Hopefully this film, directed by the very capable John Madden (Shakespeare in Love, Mrs Brown, Captain Corelli’s Mandolin) will be the beginning of something better. Faced with an onslaught of acting experience, he goes into overdrive. It’s true that Sonny is desperately trying to please his new guests, but Patel’s performance is slightly over the top. Despite this, he is still charming, amusing and likeable. Sonny also provides a pleasant romance plotline centred around his struggles with a girlfriend (Tena Desae) that his marvellously waspish mother (Lillete Dubey) is unhappy about (ie hasn’t chosen for him).

The rest of the characters variously have their cherished opinions challenged, find work, love or their true direction in life. The whole effect is heart-warming, with enough struggle and sorrow to prevent it being too saccharine. India may be watered down – only portrayed as colourful and busy, rather than chaotic and genuinely quite hard work – but this is a ‘feel good film’ not gritty reportage.

I arrived for a screening just before the film started. Looking around when the credits rolled I noticed the auditorium was packed and that most of audience seemed to have grey hair. Yes, there definitely is a shortage of films that directly address the issues of older people, but having said that The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel is funny and moving enough to captivate adult audiences of all ages. This is a prime example of a movie that relies on a good story and great performances to ensure the box office is packed.

See the trailer here:

The screenplay has been written by author Stephen Elliott, who also plans to direct the feature film. The plot reportedly follows the story of a young woman who moves to San Francisco and lands a job working as an actress working in the adult film industry.

Heather Graham will play the girl’s boss – a former porn star herself, who has turned her hand to directing. To make matters worse, the lead character also begins a relationship with an cocaine-addled lawyer, who will be played by Franco, while having to deal with her alcoholic mother, who may be played by Mystic Pizza actress, Lili Taylor. Thankfully she’s got a best friend in the form of lovely old Dev Patel, who also happens to be secretly in love with her.

There’s no word as of yet as to who might play the leading lady herself, but with filming due to begin next month, it shouldn’t be too long before we find out!

It looks like this will be an extremely busy year for Franco – with Cherry marking the sixth film he’s currently attached to! Having recently finished filming for Rupert Wyatt’s Rise of the Planet of the Apes, it is thought that he will complete Cherry before starting work on Sam Raimi’s Oz: The Great and Powerful in August.

Meanwhile, Franco is also expected to direct, and potentially star, in a film adaptation of Elliott’s memoir, The Adderall Diaries: A Memoir of Moods, Masochism and Murder, having bought the rights to the book last year. Crikey – we’ll keep you posted!

With this in mind, we thought we’d take a look back at some classic ‘young love’ films. From the sickly sweet to the heart-wrenchingly sad, here are our top ten favourites:

1. Flipped

Based on the novel of the same name by Wendelin Van Draanen,
Flipped, stars The Spy Next Door‘s Madeline Carroll as Juli, who quickly falls in love with the boy next door, Bryce, played by Callan McAuliffe. It isn’t until eighth grade that Bryce finally realises he feels the same, but it’s safe to say that – as with most things at that age – it won’t all be plain sailing for the adolescent pair.

2. Little Manhattan

Little Manhattan is the story of eleven-year-old Gabe (Journey to the Center of the Earth‘s Josh Hutcherson) who meets Rosemary Telesco (Charlie Ray), a girl he’s known since kindergarten, when he joins a karate class. He not only falls in love with her, but also her privileged lifestyle, which is very different from his own. However, heartbreak sets in when realises that their love might not last as long as he had hoped.

3. A Little Romance

Third on our list is an oldie, but a goodie. Diane Lane made her big-screen début in this film, starring as a thirteen-year-old American girl living in Paris, who falls in love with a French boy of the same age. When her mother tries to end the romance, they run away together to Venice, in order to “kiss under the Bridge of Sighs at sunset while the bells toll”, which they have been told will mean that they will be in love forever. Oh and a kind, elderly gentleman played by none other than Laurence Olivier helps them on their way.

4. Slumdog Millionaire

A tale of young love lost and then found again, this 2008 film from Danny Boyle might have been told from the perspective of eighteen-year-old Jamal Malik, played by Dev Patel, but it is his encounter with the the beautiful Latika (Freida Pinto) aged just five which drives the plot. This epic love story tells how, for this pair, being together was their destiny. Awww.

5. My Girl

Tissues at the ready – fifth on our list is the classic coming-of-age comedy-drama, My Girl. In her feature film début, Anna Chlumsky plays hypochondriac tomboy Vada, who is teased for her blossoming romance with the unpopular Thomas J. Sennett, played by Macaulay Culkin. They become best friends, blood brothers and share their first kiss, before Thomas dies from an allergic reaction to a bee sting and her world begins to fall apart. Sniff.

6. Endless Love

Brooke Shields and Martin Hewitt star in this emotionally intense portrayal of young love, with a screenplay adapted from the novel by Scott Spencer. A tale of passion, obsession, and dangerous attraction. Keep your eyes peeled for Tom Cruise’s first feature film appearance, as well as a pre-Beverly Hills 90210, Ian Ziering.

7. Let Me In

We’ve already told you about how this movie is a remake of the Swedish film, Let the Right One In, and how it stars upcoming child actress Chloe Moretz, but did you know it’s also a recent example of young love on the big screen? Moretz stars opposite Kodi Smit-McPhee, who takes on the role of a 12-year-old boy that falls for a vampire girl. Let Me In is based on the novel by John Ajvide Lindqvist, who described the film as “a dark and violent love story”.

8. Love Me If You Dare

This French film, released in 2003, tells the story of a friendship between the son of a wealthy Belgian couple and the daughter of poor Polish immigrants. As adults they are played by Guillaume Canet and Marion Cotillard, but it is as 8-year-olds that they begin the dangerous and outrageous games that mask their true feelings for one another.

9. Juno

Another recent release, Juno, tells the unconventional story of the young love which develops after Juno, played by Ellen Page, discovers she is pregnant with best friend Paulie Bleeker’s baby. Bleeker is played by Michael Cera, who also stars in teen-love flick, Youth in Revolt. The difficult decisions faced by the pair bring them closer together to create one of the quirkiest first-love films around

10. The Blue Lagoon
Perhaps one of the most iconic and unusual tales of young love can be found in the 1980 film, The Blue Lagoon. It’s stars the lovely Brooke Shields again, but this time opposite Christopher Atkins, playing a young couple who are marooned on a desert island when they are children. Without the influences of society, the pair suffer much confusion about their growing physical attraction, and develop a somewhat naive relationship based on natural instinct as they mature.

Flipped is released in UK cinemas on 12th November 2010.

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