MovieChat Forums > The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel (2012) Discussion > Jean Ainslie [Warning Spoilers for 2nd f...

Jean Ainslie [Warning Spoilers for 2nd film]

posted 8 years ago by jayme112234
2 replies | jump to latest

Did anyone else find Jean Ainslie really unlike-able?

She spends most of the film complaining and belittling her husband and acting as if she's so much better than everyone else. The worst part was that she practically stalked Graham Dashwood and seemed more interested in him than her husband? Even going as far as to try and catch his interest.

I think the worst part was when they were sat in the cafe together and she tries to come on to him and when he reveals to her that he is gay, she storms off and takes out her disappointment and embarrassment on her poor husband who was so happy about what he had spent the day doing. (Fixing something that she had complained about).

Then she got angry that Evelyn and Douglas were becoming close friends and snapped at poor Evelyn while she cried over her late husband because Douglas was comforting her.

How on earth did Douglas stay married to her for so long? Even in the sequel her daughter noted how her own mother was always bringing him down.

In the second movie, Joan even tried to cite him 'dating' Evelyn as the reason that their marriage had broken down when she was the one that left Douglas to return to England when they got their money back.

All this despite the fact that Douglas wasn't dating Evelyn, even if he wanted to because he knew that he was still married and so did she.

I honestly wanted to strangle her at times.

[–] PacificPooch 8 years ago

Well, yeah, I think the character was supposed to be disliked.

However, I'm not sure that in part 2 Douglas put the brakes on his relationship with Evelyn because he was still married. As discussed on some threads on the Second Best board, that whole angle of Douglas and Evelyn's relationship being stuck in neutral after being seemingly all set at the end of Part 1 was very contrived and didn't make much sense.

[–] louiseculmer 8 years ago

She was made to seem unlikeable so that Douglas falling for Evelyn would seem acceptable. He is a bit of a wet lettuce though, so it's not entirely surprising that he got on his wife's nerves a bit. He would certainly get on mine. she behaves quite graciously though at the end of the film. she knows Douglas doesn't want to come back to England with her, and she sets him free.

her dislike of India is emphasised to make her comapre poorly to the others, but i am fairly sure i would dislike living there too - the heqt, the dirt, the crowds and the poverty would all affect me as they affect her. So I refuse to dislike her on those grounds.

i thought the second film was rather silly, and jean coming back was quite pointless. She didn't like India, so why come back? It was quite unbelievable.