"[Boy with Apple] is a masterpiece. The rest of this shit is worthless junk."
-M. Gustave
Once again I have the pleasure of reviewing a Wes Anderson film and once again Anderson has impressed me with with his singular brand of dry humor and stylistic storytelling.
The Grand Budapest Hotel has a very different feel to it than Anderson's last film, Moonrise Kingdom. Whereas Kingdom touched me deeply with its sincere depiction of young love, Hotel takes more of a comic caper turn with its story about a genteel, yet randy hotel concierge with a passion for older (as in, octogenarian) women who gets caught up in a family battle over a dead woman's fortune. Ralph Fiennes plays M. Gustave, the concierge of The Grand Budapest Hotel in the fictional country of Zubrowka circa 1932. Gustave takes his job with a pride and seriousness bordering on obsessive-compulsive. He runs a tight ship at the hotel, but he also takes the time to train young lobby boy, Zero Mustafa (played by newcomer Tony Revolori), and to make passionate love to 84 year old Madame D. (Tilda Swinton, unrecognizable behind a mask of wrinkles and age spots).
When Madame D. is found murdered, Zero and Gustave head to her family's estate to pay their respects. It turns out that although Madame D. left most of her fortune to her thuggish sons, Dmitri and Jopling (Adrien Brody and Willem Dafoe), and daughters, she left a priceless painting, "Boy with Apple", to Gustave. Enraged by the knowledge that Gustave gave his mother the big one for near 20 years, Dmitri threatens Gustave, who retaliates by stealing the painting right off the damn wall.
Thus starts a domino effect which involves police chases, secret second wills, a prison break, and a ski chase on an alpine slope. Anderson masterfully blends his trademark aesthetics (perfectly framed scenes exploding with saturated colors) with a sense of playful silliness, but also tempered with moments of sexuality and violence rarely seen in other Anderson movies. The film feels packed, but in a good way--where you want to watch the movie multiple times to catch all the witty quips and weird details you missed the first time.
Much of the success of The Grand Budapest Hotel rests on the shoulders of Fiennes. This film is absolutely star-studded, with actors from Jude Law to Jeff Goldblum playing big characters and Bill Murray to Jason Schwartzman playing smaller roles. Yet, I think the "Wes Anderson Family Reunion" aspect actually takes away from the film. While it's delightful to see our favorite actors pop up for brief cameos, those moments took me out of the world of this film. The actors, for the most part, speak in their natural accents. So Ed Norton sounds like Ed Norton. Jeff Goldblum sounds like Jeff Goldblum. Only Ralph Fiennes, in my opinion, is given the chance to create a character. And what a character he creates! Unlike the typical "Ralph Fiennes role"--dignified, perhaps a bit of cool malice, and oh-so-British--his M. Gustave is irreverent, flamboyant, charming, debonair, flippant. The older Zero narrates Gustave's life and loves by explaining that the women Gustave wooed were, to a one, old, rich, vain, blonde, and needy--just like Gustave (at least, the blonde, vain, and needy parts). Gustave is not taking advantage of these rich, elderly women. He genuinely prefers them. He explains to Zero that the "cheaper cuts" have more "flavor" with a gleam in his eye, practically licking his lips. Such naughtiness is exactly what an Anderson movie needs to firmly ground his twee mise-en-scene back to the earth.
I very much enjoyed The Grand Budapest Hotel, despite the flaw of--again, my opinion--too many cameos. Also, the lack of female characters is pretty disheartening, although I've come to expect that from Anderson's movies (which, let's face it, are generally big, ol' sausage fests). Anderson's one theme that he continually reinvents, whether in telling a love story, a coming of age story, or a comedy, is the father-son (or, in many cases, surrogate father/surrogate son) relationship. You see this theme played out in almost all his films, and he is a master at capturing that special relationship between an older mentor and his young protege.
4.5 out of 5 stars
...all this other shit is worthless junk.
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