REVIEWS
Reviews edited by Mark Adams mark.adams@screendaily.com
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The Grand Budapest Hotel Reviewed by Mark Adams competition A warmly whimsical and deftly magical tale of love, robbery, murder and comedy mishap all set against the fantastical backdrop of an imaginary central European region, Wes Anderson’s beautiful and thoroughly enjoyable The Grand Budapest Hotel sees the director deliver his best film yet. It will enchant fans of his signature precious and warmly deadpan comedy style and draw in those who may be new to the unique Anderson vision. As usual, he sets his story within a unique imaginary world of his own creation, this time shifting his tale to a fictional spa town in the imaginary country of Zubrowska in the 1930s, with the key backdrop being the elegant Grand Budapest Hotel. It is a period of fancy hotels, elegant fashion, good manners, bitter conflict and grand ambitions and the film reflects the freewheeling caper-comedy style of classy 1930s Hollywood screwball comedies but with the added Anderson style, which layers in clever design, engaging effects and a playful use of varied aspect ratios to keep audiences intrigued. The opening film here at Berlin — where it screens in Competition — The Grand Budapest Hotel will also play at several other European film festivals before opening in the US and most other key territories in early March. It will be a must-see for Anderson’s legion of fans, while strong and resolutely charming performances from Ralph Fiennes, Adrien Brody, Edward Norton and Willem Dafoe (as well as Anderson’s now regular supporting
n 12 Screen International at Berlin February 7, 2014
US. 2014. 100mins Director Wes Anderson Production companies American Imperial, Indian Paintbrush, Studio Babelsberg, Fox Searchlight Pictures Distribution 20th Century Fox Screenplay Wes Anderson, Hugo Guinness Producers Wes Anderson, Scott Rudin, Steven Bales, Jeremy Dawson Co-producer Jane Frazer Cinematography Robert Yeoman Editor Barney Pilling Production designer Adam Stockhausen Music Alexandre Desplat Main cast Ralph Fiennes, Tony Revolori, F Murray Abraham, Mathieu Amalric, Adrien Brody, Willem Dafoe, Jeff Goldblum, Harvey Keitel,Jude Law, Bill Murray, Edward Norton, Saoirse Ronan, Tilda Swinton
performers) should help boost theatrical attention. Though playful in its use of storytelling — there are stories within stories, within stories — at the core of the film are the adventures of Gustave H (Fiennes), a legendary concierge at the famous hotel between the wars, and Zero Moustafa (newcomer Tony Revolori), the lobby boy who is to become his most loyal and trusted friend. A vain but lovingly loyal lothario who romances older female guests at the hotel, Gustave H (or Monsieur Gustave as he is simply known) also runs the place with precision, and takes a paternal attitude to young Zero. When one of his loves, the 84-year-old dowager countess Madame D, (beautifully played by a heavily made-up Tilda Swinton) dies mysteriously, Gustave and Zero hurry by train — and through a newly militarised border — to Schloss Lutz to be at her side. But when Gustave is bequeathed a valuable painting he soon finds himself accused of her murder by her son and presumed heir Dmitri (Brody). What follows is a caper that veers into Marx brothers territory at times, as Gustave attempts to flee; is imprisoned in Checkpoint 19 Criminal Internment Camp, managing to escape after befriending underworld figure Ludwig (Keitel) and having tools hidden in cakes delivered to him; and is assisted in flight by the varied members of the Society of the Crossed Keys (a brotherhood of concierges). He eventually finds his way back to the Grand Budapest Hotel — and to Zero — for an action-packed finale (and a blazing gun battle, an unusual sight in an Anderson film) on the sixth floor of the reputable building.
It will come as no surprise there is an awful lot going on in The Grand Budapest Hotel. It would be a fair comment to say the plethora of characters make for engaging distractions rather than aiding the flow of the film — the likes of Bill Murray, Owen Wilson, Tom Wilkinson, Bob Balaban and Léa Seydoux all have minor, but amusingly telling, roles — but then this is what you get when you buy into an Anderson film. That, along with a love of trains, artfully interwoven animation and a rich sense of production design and costumes all help make this journey a playful and entertaining one. Fiennes is sheer fastidious perfection as the vain but rather generous Gustave M, and his on-screen relationship with Revolori is delightfully sustained as the pair embark on a series of strange but rather wonderful adventures. The film is also a tribute to the classic image of the bell hop (maybe the best since Four Rooms) and has a lot of fun with — and a good deal of respect for — the notion of how the clichéd ‘Grand Hotel’ functions. The framing device of having the story told by both Tom Wilkinson and Jude Law — as the author of a book about the hotel at different ages — is engaging rather than necessary but once the film focuses on Monsieur Gustave and the young Zero and their great adventure, it finds its glorious momentum and takes the audience on a swaggering and delightful grand adventure that is cinematic, exciting, funny and above all intelligently entertaining.
Screen Score
★★★★