Review: The Grand Budapest Hotel

Released: 7^th March

Certificate: 15

Director: Wes Anderson

Cast: Ralph Fiennes, Tony Revolori, F. Murray Abraham, Saoirse Ronan

Anderson’s latest is a gloriously farcical murder mystery set in and around the eponymous hotel, which sits nestled in the mountains of a fictional central European nation called Zubrowka. The story unfolds within itself as in the early 1980s a writer relates how a meeting with the hotel’s owner (F. Murray Abraham) in the late 1960s inspired him to write an account of the hotel owner (newcomer Tony Revolori)’s adventures in 1932. Needless to say, things get a little convoluted.

But it is in the minutiae and endless threads of a story that Anderson does his best work. His trademark patois renders even the lowliest prison inmates eloquent, and elevates the conversational acrobatics of Ralph Fiennes’ M. Gustave to practically poetic status.  The cinematography, too, bristles with pleasing quirks, as the camera suddenly jerks round to reveal events occurring just out of shot, often to great comic effect. Anderson’s love of daft humour and gentle melancholy is here also punctuated with thrilling chases and moments of genuinely startling violence.

Fiennes gracefully leads a stunning cast, with many Anderson stalwarts cropping up alongside other recognisable (and not so recogniseable in the case of Tilda Swinton’s Madame D.) faces. Special mention must go to Fiennes, who devotes Shakespearian commitment to Gustave, making him endlessly endearing even as we realise he’s somewhat of a rogue and a windbag. Tony Revolori provides a good foil for Fiennes in a Michael Cera-esque turn as the young Zero, who starts as a lobby boy when Gustave is concierge in the glory days of the Grand Budapest.

However, for all its intricacy, the absence of the deeper themes which characterise Anderson’s more serious works means at times the pace can slip a little, rendering the whole thing as frivolous as the confections Agatha (Ronan) prepares at Mendl’s bakery. The screenplay is also more expletive-laden than Anderson’s usual fare, and while insults and curses are usually used with great precision, some exchanges come off a little gauche.

Despite the occasional tasteless joke and drop in pace, Anderson’s most recent work is a glorious confection of an adventure story, packed with warmth and humour.

Verdict: 4/5