After a horrible week that included two police killings of unarmed African-American men and the horrific assassination of five Dallas police, we were not in the mood for a heavy and painful film. Rather, we consciously chose a pleasant trifle of a fairy tale, a sweet and kind story of a group of Brit retirees who, separately and together, go off to India for an offshored retirement adventure. There’s the recent widow (Judi Dench), the barrister who grew up in India (Tom Wilkinson), the grumpy and racist former servant (Maggie Smith) in need of affordable surgery and care, the former civil servant and his shrewish wife (Bill Nighy and Penelope Carlton) laid low by the burst bubble of 2008, the old man seeking one last fling with the world and the women (Norman Cousins), and the hot older woman seeking her rich nth husband (Celia Imrie). All land in the Best Exotic, a hotel still under reconstruction and, of course, run by a charming if not necessarily competent young man dreaming of success. We meet the new India of call centers and the old India of caste and oppression. All grow and come to terms with themselves and find their way in this new land. All are happier for having come, even if their lives there don’t go as they planned. It’s a very nice little film and it was good and surprising to hear Bronwen laugh so much. Pip pip, cheerio, thank goodness for the empire