Three out of
Five stars
Running time:
105 mins
An ambitious but largely successful attempt to marry Bollywood and Hollywood, Marigold is worth seeing for Ali Larter's performance and some joyous musical numbers.
What's it all about?
Ali Larter stars as fiery-tempered American actress Marigold Lexton, who arrives in India only to find that her luggage has been lost and the funding for her low-budget Hollywood movie has fallen through. Fortunately, Marigold manages to land herself a small part in a Bollywood movie and she enlists the help of the film's handsome choreographer, Prem (Salman Khan) to help her with the singing and dancing.
Marigold soon finds herself falling for Prem, but there are complications. Not only is Prem descended from royalty, but he's also been entered into an arranged marriage. And if that wasn't bad enough, Marigold's American boyfriend (Ian Bohen) shows up out of the blue.
The Good
The release of Marigold has been cunningly brought forward to capitalise on Ali Larter's presence in current TV smash Heroes, which is just as well, since Starring the supporting actress from Final Destination and Legally Blonde doesn't have quite the same ring to it. Luckily, Larter is terrific here, clearly having fun with the bitchy diva-type scenes in the first half but also throwing herself wholeheartedly into the musical numbers.
She's well matched by a strong supporting cast, although Khan seems almost too patient to be true and it's a shame his character isn't allowed to lose his temper just a little. The love story itself has all the cheesy elements you'd expect from a Bollywood film, but they work surprisingly well.
The Great
The musical numbers (including seven original songs) are extremely well done – they're colourful, catchy and well-choreographed. They're also infectiously joyous and you're quite likely to find yourself grinning like a loon by the end.
Worth seeing?
In short, Marigold is an occasionally flawed but no less enjoyable musical romcom that's worth seeing for its sheer exuberance.