Wes
Anderson is a bit of an unusual filmmaker to me. I’ve enjoyed all the films of his I’ve seen,
and I appreciate the originality and technical artistry, but I find them a
little hard to connect to emotionally.
While I always like them, I never love
them; they don’t really stay with me afterword.
So, I don’t love The Grand
Budapest Hotel, but it’s a very well-made movie, and I honestly liked it a
lot.
This
film comes to us through the eyes of Zero, the new lobby boy at the Grand
Budapest Hotel. Under the eccentric but
detailed tutelage of concierge M. Gustave, Zero navigates the hospitality
business of pre-war Europe, but of course, it’s not going to be that
simple. When Gustave is remember in the
will of a wealthy regular who’s died, he gets embroiled in an ugly conspiracy,
and Zero is behind his mentor every step of the way. There are fastidiously hand-decorated cakes,
clandestine meetings in confessionals, and creepy enforcers played by Willem
Dafoe – all good things in my book.
As can
be expected with Wes Anderson, the art direction is impeccable. The mise-en-scène is peppered with delightful
touches throughout, every color feels deliberate, and a prison break has hardly
ever been so whimsically staged. Much of
the direction and action has a stylized intentionality about it, with very
consciously-synchronized head tilts and line delivery that’s often purposefully
flat but somehow doesn’t feel less genuine.
Though the plot itself is a little busy (we jump through several layers
of stories within stories before we get to the main narrative,) it holds
together fairly well, and the extremely likable duo of Gustave and Zero help to
hold our interest even when things get muddled.
The
cast is fit to bursting with acting pedigree.
Ralph Fiennes plays Gustave with gently absurd panache, Tilda Swinton is
almost unrecognizable as the rich dead aristo, and Adrien Brody and Willem
Dafoe work well together as a pair of baddies.
The film also employs, with varying degrees of screentime, Jeff
Goldblum, Edward Norton, Mathieu Amalric (who I’ve not seen since he played
Jean-Dominique in The Diving Bell and the
Butterfly,) Bill Murray, Owen Wilson, Bob Balaban, Saorise Ronan (young
Briony in Atonement,) Tom Wilkinson,
Jude Law, Harvel Keitel, and Jason Schwartzman.
Phew! I’m not familiar with Tony
Revolori, who plays Zero, but he’s excellent – sharp, sweet, and unflappable.
Five
best picture nominees in, and I still haven’t found a clear standout. Selma
is, for my money, probably the best I’ve seen so far, but since it has so few
total nominations, I don’t think it’s likely to win. There’s no obvious frontrunner for me, and I
don’t really have a sentimental favorite that I love best even though it’ll
never take home the trophy (as often happens with me.) I don’t know – there’s been a lot that’s
good, and even very good, but so far, nothing exceptional.
Warnings
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