If you’ve never left a film thinking that it was the best film you’ve ever seen then watch The Grand Budapest Hotel immediately. Just released on Blu-ray and DVD it’s a film technically starring everyone and is just the best film I’ve ever seen, this side of being alive. By starring everyone I mean:
Ralph Fiennes, F. Murray Abraham, Edward Norton, Athieu Amatric, Saoirse Ronan, Adrien Brody, Willem Dafoe, Léa Seydoux, Jeff GoldBlum, Jason Schwartzman, Jude Law, Tilda Swinton, Harvey Keitel, Tom Wilkinson, Bill Murray, Owen Wilson, Tony Revolori.
Everyone else was too busy making The Expendables 3.
The film is a story within in a story within a story. The first is man telling a story about the Grand Budapest Hotel. Within the Hotel, Jude Law meets the owner who tells his personal history of when it really was ‘Grand’ as it has now become nothing more than a haven for about five depressed lonely writers.
The plot revolves around Zero (Tony Revolori) the new lobby boy in the Grand Budapest Hotel, Monsieur Gustave H (Ralph Fiennes) as the concierge training him and the unfortunate passing of one of Gustave’s... ‘girlfriends’. Whens the film begins, properly begins, you are assaulted with incredible beauty and craftsmanship, especially in the miniatures used to illustrate the film. Fiennes is beyond outstanding, his comic timing, his charming demeanor and his restrained but perfectly fantastic use of swearing, though that is true for everyone in the film. The old woman, who is now dead, has left a painting worth a hell of a lot of money to Monsieur Gustave H and everyone thinks it’s worth framing and/or killing him for.
Gustave ends up in prison and thus begins a much more efficient version of The Shawshank Redemption. He charms his way into a gang, partly due to knocking someone’s bollocks in off camera and manages to escape thanks to a secret Mason-like secret society of les concierges, featuring cameos from most of the cast members including Wes Anderson favourite Bill.
Though I’ve met people who didn’t like it because it was a bit strange and unusual, I suggest you watch it even if you think it isn’t your kind of thing, I personally had avoided watching any Wes Anderson films because of how they appeared at first glance, but having sucked the cinema dry of films like a creativity barnacle, I was left with nothing else to watch. Now that it has been released on DVD and Blu-ray I have watched it a further two times and it is appallingly good. It’s like an adult movie for kids, or a kid’s movie for adults.
There are not a lot of films that have caused me to bother people constantly about whether or not the have seen it every time I run into them but this is one of them. The only thing I could say that’s bad about it is that I have to go to work and socialize and can’t watch it over and over again all day. Which is sad, but it makes it all the more special when I get the chance.
The acting, the script, the set design, the direction, the casting, the costumes, and the music, everything is incredible. It’s harder to describe why a film is good than why a film is shite, so when a film is as perfect as this one there’s not a lot to be said other than:
The Grand Budapest Hotel gets a 5/5.
[★★★★★]
Dave Roberts
The Grand Budapest Hotel at CeX
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