The Grand Budapest Hotel

THE GRAND BUDAPEST HOTEL

Director : Wes Anderson

Year : 2014

Genre : Comedy

Rating : *****

 

With a cast list that features many of the biggest names in Hollywood as well as the directorial eye of one of the most innovative and distinctive filmmakers working today, 'The Grand Budapest Hotel' is a fantastically entertaining and beautiful looking picture. With films such as 'Rushmore', 'The Royal Tenenbaums', 'Moonrise Kingdom' and 'Fantastic Mr. Fox' under his belt, Wes Anderson has become the go - to guy for off kilter characterisations and strange, idiosyncratic dialogue and this movie showcases him at his quirky, strange and bizarre best. Funny, exciting and devilishly clever, 'The Grand Budapest Hotel' is a highlight in what has been somewhat of a disappointing year in cinema so far and is as of March 11th, one of my absolute favourite movies of 2014.

Set in the fictional European republic of Zubrowska, the film tells the life story of Zero Mustafa played by F. Murray Abraham, the current owner of the majestic Grand Budapest Hotel; a giant pink edifice crowning the mountains of what is otherwise a drab and generally miserable looking place to live. One night while having dinner with a guest played by Jude Law, Mustafa begins to tell the story of how he came to inherit the now disused monolith. 

The film then goes back in time to the early 1930's where we see that Zero was in fact a lobby boy for the hotel under the apprenticeship of it's concierge; the harsh gerontophiliac Monsieur Gustave played with verve and passion by Ralph Fiennes. He may be a tough man but one who soon grows to respect Mustafa and eventually becomes inseparably good friends with the naive but loyal young man after a number of increasingly bizarre and potentially life threatening events. Framed for the murder of a wealthy dowager played by an unrecognisable Tilda Swinton, Gustave (with Mustafas help) must break out of jail and prove his innocence while avoided the deadly wrath of her dangerous, psychotic family who believes that he has stolen a priceless piece of artwork.

Told in a idiosyncratically elliptical and time bending style, 'The Grand Budapest Hotel' is the most Wes Anderson-ny film that Wes Anderson has ever made and for my money is his best to date. Narrated by several people throughout, the movie switches location, tone and story arc in the blink of an eye and for those who may not like such scattered plot and meandering narrative, 'The Grand Budapest Hotel' may prove to be rather problematic. But as a fan of Anderson, I was constantly amazed how much he was subverting my expectations and playing with the conventions of modern storytelling. Shot with a nostalgic pastel aesthetic, the film recalls the golden age of Central European architecture and culture while also maintaining an air of pre - war angst and paranoia giving the picture a strange air of portentous doom and the melancholic sense that these naive, quaint times will soon disappear, never to return. Set entirely in snow covered countryside and barren lifeless fields, 'The Grand Budapest Hotel' is a palpably cold film but is quickly thawed thanks to it's continual comedy and constantly entertaining characters. As he demonstrated in 'The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou' and 'The Royal Tenenbaums', Anderson has a great ear for dialogue and the film consistently throws line after line of incredibly quotable colloquy ranging from sharp one liners to foul mouthed tirades of emotional and personal abuse.

The cast list for this film is unbelievable. Ralph Fiennes, Jude Law, F. Murray Abraham, Adrien Brody, Soairse Ronan, Bill Murray, Edward Norton, Harvey Keitel, Willem Dafoe, Jeff Goldblum, Matthieu Almaric, Lea Seydoux, Owen Wilson, Jason Schwartzmann all have a part to play in this labyrinthine, typically Anderson-esque tale and every single actor does a very good job in their roles however big or small. Playing characters that have their own distinct personalities, each part is easily definable and makes for a wide variety of kooky archetypes and weird but never unrealistic comedic foils. However while F. Murray Abraham's Mustafa may be the central focus, the film really belongs to Ralph Fiennes and he is just brilliant as the volatile but austere concierge whose attention to detail is only matched by his eye for rich, elderly blonde ladies. Trying to hold together the respected traditional values in an increasingly modernized world, Gustave is a man trapped in time; a man who may have precision and respectability but these are idiosyncrasies that will soon crumble and fade away when Nazi fascism raises its ugly head. Probably best known for his more villainous roles in films such as 'Red Dragon', 'The Prince Of Egypt', 'Schindler's List' and of course the 'Harry Potter' franchise, Fiennes may be an actor who has been sadly typecast as the antagonist of many films in the past. But as he demonstrated in movies such as 'Wallace & Gromit : The Curse Of The Wererabbit' and the highly overlooked 'In Bruges', he is also an actor who has great comedic talent and timing and I am so glad that a director like Anderson has finally allowed him to show off his rarely seen hilarious side. Consistently and constantly entertaining, Monsieur Gustave is one of the best written characters I have ever seen and one that I hope will bring Ralph Fiennes many more comedic roles in the future.

While it may be Wes Andersons most bizarre and unconventional film to date, I also think it may his most commercial and audience friendly. It's story may be as twisted as a bowlful of spaghetti and the characters range from dictatorial authority figures to psychotic murderers but the tone is overall very fresh and positive. It certainly has a number of  darker elements but the snappy dialogue and hilarious performances help to bring it back into a mostly jovial atmosphere and both Fiennes and newcomer Tony Revolori perfectly balance the madness that is ensuing around them. While films such as 'Rushmore', 'The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou' and 'The Darjeeling Limited' may have a devout but limited cult following, I hope that 'The Grand Budapest Hotel' gains much more mainstream and critical success. Practically perfect in every way, 'The Grand Budapest Hotel' is an absolute wonder to behold and may be an early contender for the 87th Academy Awards next year.