Grand Budapest Hotel - Film Review
Posted on: 2014-03-12
Our rating:
One of the most innovative, bewitching movies of the year.
The Grand Budapest Hotel (15) – Film Review.
Wes Anderson has already proven himself to be a unique writing and directing talent with The Royal Tannenbaums and Fantastic Mr Fox, and his latest opus is an equally splendid, totally off-kilter, brilliantly deliriously slice of confection from the mind of one of modern cinema's individual voices.
The film kicks off with author (Tom Wilkinson) recalling the tale of a visit me made in the 60s to the titular, luxurious European hotel and his encounter with its owner, Mr Moustafa (F. Murray Abraham), who tells how he inherited the establishment from M. Gustave (Ralph Fiennnes).
What follows is a madcap caper of quirky, oddball characters, frantic chases, mad dashes, beautifully literate soliloquys, deadpan humour, comic irreverence, all topped with dark, subversive flourishes, cartoonish stylings, and awesome production design.
It's also a film with a lot of heart and soul, feeling and passion, imbuing its occasionally morally, ethically ambiguous and manipulative characters with rounded, substantial personas.
And whilst a lot of the ensuing action – primarily concerning a crazy pursuit for a missing, priceless painting, Boy with Apple – takes places in the hotel itself, it maintains its momentum, even ratchets up a few gears, when it ventures outside. The outdoor design is more akin to early French cinema, adopting the magical, cut-and-paste George Melies method that adds to its sometimes almost animated stylings of elevators wobbling up and down and funiculars lumbering up hillsides.
It's a landscape that is wholly original and exists, quite literally, in a world of its own in the Republic of Zubrowka and its own 'klubeck' currency.
The narrative plays with the ideas of memories within memories, contradiction and exaggeration, creating an often erratic melting pot of adventures, misadventures, inserting a story within a story like an ever-impressive Russian doll.
Fienne's character is a hoot, a suave, debonair, rakish, sometimes sleazy, womanising buffoon, but with a sympathetic, occasionally tragic edge that makes him endearing, alluring and enchanting as the hotel's locale itself. The camera whips through its locations a crazy, peripatetic fashion, dashing up, down, sideways, swooping and circling, seemingly struggling to keep up with him as the charming gigolo sprints his way through the madcap narrative.
The painting is really one big MacGuffin, leading its characters on a helter-skelter chase and a series of outrageous, linking set-pieces. If anything, it's reminiscent of the bumbling Pink Panther movies with its playful tone, physical clowning around and melange of crazy characters.
And whilst Fiennes is magnificent, there's plenty of sterling back-up from a coterie of cameos, including Jeff Goldblum, Bill Murray, Harvey Kietel, Willem Defoe, Tilda Swinton and Edward Norton.
Anderson's idiosyncratic worlds are certainly not to everyone's tastes, and if you've not been endeared by his previous efforts you won't find anything here that will convert you. But, in the right mind set – and If you’re prepared to give broaden your cinematic horizons and give it a chance – it's a fresh, distinct, oddball, marvellous, rich and enchanting fable, as human as it is curious, as familiar as it is other-worldly.
It's impeccable costume and set detail, characterisations and frantic pace make it the kind of film you'll get more out of with repeated viewings, for sure, but checking in to this particular hotel will guarantee you one of the most innovative, bewitching movies of the year.
4/5
Reviewed by Jamie Caddick for 365Bristol.
Article by:
Born and raised in the suburbs of Swansea, Jimmy moved to Bristol back in 2004 to attend university. Passionate about live music, sport, science and nature, he can usually be found walking his cocker spaniel Baxter at any number of green spots around the city. Call James on 078 9999 3534 or email Editor@365Bristol.com.
