C+

Imagine a bunch of kids turned away from a sold-out screening of “The Avengers” absent-mindedly wandering into the auditorium next door and encountering John Madden’s adaptation of Deborah Moggach’s novel. It’s difficult to think of a greater cinematic chasm than the one that exists between Joss Whedon’s comic-book extravaganza and this very different ensemble piece, a feel-good bit of fluff for the senior set. Nor the one that exists between their two target audiences.

“The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel”—even the title is a tip-off about its determined cuteness (the source book was called “These Foolish Things”)—is a gentle comedy-drama about a bunch of eccentric British seniors, most beset by financial woes, who seek inexpensive retirement—or in one case affordable medical treatment—at a run-down hotel in Jaipur, India. It’s a picture designed for mature audiences looking for quirky sixty-plus characters, subdued chuckles, a soupcon of mild naughtiness and not-too-heavy sentiment. Sedate and reassuringly unthreatening, it’s genial and populated by a cast of actors and actresses who are old friends and therefore hard to resist—even when, as here, the material they’re doling out is distinctly second-rate.

Chief among the lovable expatriates is Evelyn Greenslade (Judi Dench), a recent widow always dependent on her husband, who left her with a mountain of debt. She’s striking out on her own for the first time, much to the chagrin of her son, whose offer to take her in she spurns, preferring an admittedly uncertain stab at independence. She’s joined by Douglas and Jean Ainslie (Bill Nighy and Penelope Wilton). He’s a diffident ex-civil servant and she’s his demanding wife, angry over the fact that they’re in straitened circumstances because of what seems to have been a bad investment in their daughter’s company. Then there’s Norman Cousins (Ronald Pickup), a randy old duffer desperate to score again, and Madge Hardcastle (Celia Imrie), a saucy broad looking to nab a rich man. The odd ones out are Graham Dashwood (Tom Wilkinson), a genteel former judge who’s certainly not hard up for cash and has returned to India, where he once lived, for a reason slowly revealed as the picture proceeds, and Muriel Donnelly (Maggie Smith), a sharp-tongued but, as it eventually turns out, equally sharp-witted ex-housekeeper who’s come to India reluctantly—she’s a bigot, you see—for hip replacement surgery which would be delayed in England.

With the exception of Dashwood, these are fish out of water, of course, and while some (Douglas and Evelyn most notably) who embrace the new environment, there are others (Jean especially, but also Muriel at first) who snobbishly reject it. Madden and cinematographer Ben Davis load the movie up with local color—shots of teeming crowds, bevies of agreeable urchins and street musicians, brief glimpses of local family life—but as if the relationships among the seven Brits (which include halting romances, arguments and shallow learning experiences) weren’t enough, the script adds a subplot about the hotel’s young manager Sonny Kapoor (Dev Patel), who’s cheekily trying to rebuild the decrepit hotel—his late father’s pride and joy—while romancing Sunaina (Tena Desae), a telephone receptionist at an outsourced customer-service firm. Their romance is opposed by both her brother and mother, the latter one of those stereotypical Indian moms who want to marry off their sons to respectable girls and run their lives.

“Marigold Hotel” raises some serious issues—the economic plight of the elderly, the changing nature of India—but skirts them all in sitcom style. And while it touches on a few darker relationship themes—a disintegrating marriage, the regret of a man over a long-lost love—it’s careful to do so in a light-handed fashion that won’t upset the sensitivities of older viewers. And though Oi Parker’s script boasts an occasional sharp line, it’s mostly content to follow comfortably predictable routes, especially in terms of Patel’s exuberant comic patter, which wouldn’t have been out of place in a Peter Sellers Indian bit, and Smith’s abrupt change of attitude, which is like a female Archie Bunker becoming the day-saving dea ex machina.

Nevertheless “The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel” benefits from a veteran cast that lets no chance to shine escape their grasp, from Madden’s unforced, easygoing direction (abetted by Chris Gill’s steady, unfussy editing), and from the colorful location, which Davis takes advantage of. The result is really no more than an old-fashioned crowd-pleaser for the over-fifty audience, who will appreciate spending time with a bunch of likable codgers and hearing a message about seizing the chances life gives you whatever your age. A pity it never takes any chances or goes beyond the obvious.