The Grand Budapest Hotel (***½)
Directed
by: Wes Anderson
Starring:
Ralph Fiennes, Tony Revolori, Adrien Brody, Willem Dafoe, Jeff Goldblum,
Saoirse Ronan, Edward Norton, F. Murray Abraham, Mathieu Amalric, Jude Law,
Harvey Keitel, Bill Murray, Lea Seydoux, Jason Schwartzman, Tilda Swinton, Tom
Wilkinson, Owen Wilson, Bob Balaban
Seen:
March 20th 2014
***½
Out of ****
Wes
Anderson is a strangely quirky director who has made some highly acclaimed
movies. Some of them I enjoyed (Moonrise Kingdom, The Fantastic Mr. Fox), some
I really didn’t like and couldn’t understand what the fuss was about (The Royal
Tenenbaums, The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou), and some that I (apprehensively)
still want to see (Rushmore, Bottle Rocket, The Darjeeling Limited). The Grand
Budapest Hotel falls firmly in the enjoyment class, and I think I even enjoyed
it more than Moonrise Kingdom, which was a beautifully quirky movie. Where Wes
Anderson’s previous movies were mostly somewhat slow-paced dramatic efforts
with very little adventure or action, The Grand Budapest Hotel is, to Wes
Anderson’s standards, almost an action blockbuster.
The
Grand Budapest Hotel tells a snapshot story from a fictional book written by
The Author (Wilkinson in more recent time, Law as his younger self in the story
within the story). The Author’s story recounts his visit to the hotel in the
late 60’s, where he comes across the hotel’s owner, Zero Mustafa (Abraham), who
tells him of how he started work in the hotel as a lobby boy up to how he
eventually came to be the owner of the now very run-down and falling apart hotel
some time later.
Events
start out with the beginning of his career as a lobby boy of The Grand Budapest
Hotel under the tutelage of Gustave H (Fiennes), a perfectionist regarding client
service to the point of indecency, offering wealthy, older (blonde) women “additional
services”. Madame D (Swinton), probably his favourite client, leaves the hotel with
reservations that Gustave initially doesn’t understand but which becomes clear
enough to him when, a month late, he receives news that she has died. He takes
Zero (Revolori) along to her wake and for the reading of the will, where it’s
revealed that she left Gustave her one priceless possession, a painting called
Boy with Apple. Her family is not impressed with this, and her son Dmitri
Desgoffe-und-Taxis (Brody) vows to block this, with his nefarious bodyguard J.G.
Jopling (Dafoe). Gustave and Zero steal the painting and return to the hotel,
and before Gustave is arrested for the murder of Madame D and sent to prison,
he makes a pact that if Zero helps them, Zero will be his sole heir. The prison
break and subsequent chases and adventure and hunt for the truth while staying
one step ahead of the law and J.G. Jopling is an entertaining and muddled mess all
in one. The movie even features a large-scale hotel shoot-out, truly racking up
the excitement.
The Grand
Budapest Hotel is filmed in a faintly colourful 70’s look and features an
enormous cast where every single actor excels at bringing Anderson’s quirky
vision to life. Ralph Fiennes is fantastically entertaining as the overly
friendly and extremely client-devoted concierge, with Revolori fronting the
rest of the cast in typically deadpan Anderson style. I really enjoyed The
Grand Budapest Hotel, it eliminated all those things that usually annoys me
about Anderson’s movies and emphasised all those that I enjoy, making this
probably one of Anderson’s most generally accessible movies. Ralph Fiennes is
delightful in probably one of his most interesting and enjoyable roles ever and
he makes The Grand Budapest Hotel a very entertaining way to spend an afternoon
or evening.
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