I absolutely adored Wes
Anderson’s MOONRISE KINGDOM – a
film that was enchanting, eccentric, visually as clear as breathing in the
early morning light. The director successfully used actors against type making
me realize the range of their abilities. I was held captive and surrendered my
prosaic reality for almost 2 hours until the magic ended.
THE GRAND BUDAPEST HOTEL was about 70% as mesmerizing even though the dialogue
was snappy, the actors racing back and forth – torsos rigid and legs moving
like Keystone Kops right out of a Mack Sennett film were endearing, but “sight gags” too oft repeated can be
tedious. Anderson walks a tightrope – between being overly cute, and conjuring
incisive transformations that are entrancing. He teeters on both sides of that
thin line – sometimes outrageously playful and facetious, and at other times
predictably slapstick and repetitive.
Through flashbacks, we are
introduced to Gustav H. (a wonderful stately, farcical Ralph Fiennes) who is the ideal
concierge of The Grand Budapest Hotel located in a fictional kingdom somewhere
in Central Europe in the 1930’s. We are shown inklings of a tremulous and
uneasy time period between the wars, and the cataclysmic changes that will soon
overtake the continent. Glimmers of fascism are on the rise, but the movie
treats the black-shirted “thugs” with short shrift – ridiculing them as if they
were burlesque characters out of a Marx Brothers film – impotent and
ridiculous.
Gustave H is a gentleman who
lives by the rules of his profession and has a genuine affection for his job
and his patrons. He is a man who believes in “service,” and has the personality
and charismatic appeal to glide in out of seductions, preferably with the older
and wealthier of his female clientele. Cynicism is made palatable by the
undeniable joy and high spirits of his antics.
Basically this is a mystery tale – a whodunit involving the
murder of one of the hotel’s customers; a missing will and the theft of a
valuable painting. It is also essentially a film about a friendship – a
mentorship of a young apprentice, aptly named Zero Mustapha (an enthusiastic
and winning Tony Revolori) who is the most fully realized individual in THE
GRAND BUDAPEST HOTEL,) a “lobby boy” taken under the Concierge’s wing becoming his ally and devoted
friend. Their adventures combine whacky perilous undertakings overlaid
with the innocence of innate goodness, often involving Wes Anderson’s ensemble
cast – Harvey Keitel, Edward Norton, Tilda Swinton, Bill Murray and Owen Wilson
with “newcomers” Jude law, F. Murray Abraham, William DaFoe, Jeff Goldbaum and the fragile Lea Seydoux
thrown in the mix.
Visually THE GRAND
BUDAPEST HOTEL feels like a fairy
tale. Once upon a time…in a far off land …describes what Anderson’s world
evokes. Emotional resonance does not peek out very often, except for a few
tender scenes between Zero and Gustav H. and even then there is a wall of
self-conscious drollery that separates us from them. But I definitely think that
this is a film one should see by a director who deserves our attention.
