The Grand Budapest Hotel

Screenrant

Wes Anderson, I have no doubt that you are a cinematic genius in your own eyes. However, you need to find a way to let that genius show to a wider audience. Watching your film, The Grand Budapest Hotel, I caught glimpses of the way your mind works, and I was impressed. But as much as I wanted to fully embrace your film, I only found it to be marginally entertaining.

To my readers: I couldn't really tell you much of what The Grand Budapest Hotel is about. It seems Anderson focused most of his efforts on elaboration of scenery and cinematography, as well as sly gags, rather than characters and plots. All I could gather was that a man named Zero looks back on his experiences as a hotel lobby boy at a magnificent European hotel. He would work every day to do well in the eyes of the hotel's eccentric concierge, Gustav (Ralph Fiennes).

When one of Gustav's regular guests (who moonlights as his cougar) dies, he discovers he has inherited the woman's most valuable possession - a painting worth millions. The woman's enraged family denies him ownership, prompting him to steal the work of art. This soon leads to an escapade throughout ski slopes, prisons, trains, and of course, The Grand Budapest Hotel.

In terms of the film's style, I'm not one to shy away from a quirky movie, but The Grand Budapest Hotel took things to a new extreme, where artwork and quick dialogue delivery become the focus of the entire movie. For example, I can hardly remember anything about Willem Defoe's silent assassin/bodyguard character except for the fact that I liked him and wanted more of him, but didn't get any. I don't even remember his character's name. Or Adrien Brody' characters. Or the character of the underused Saorsie Ronan. Or Harvey Keitel's character.

I found myself laughing for a split second at many points in the movie, but laughs were less and less frequent when I stated realizing I wasn't sure who or what I was laughing at. Maybe it's just because I'm not used to Anderson's style of work. Although I've seen Moonrise Kingdom, I've yet to watch any of his more notable works like The Royal Tenenbaums or Rushmore. Until I understand where Anderson's coming from with is approach to movies, I guess I'll just destined to never fully enjoy his creations. But The Grand Budapest Hotel is worth a watch, if only for the originality it tries so desperately to achieve and its stunning visuals.

Rating: 3/5