"The Grand Budapest Hotel" Review

The Grand Budapest Hotel

5 out of 5 stars

Rated R

Brief topless female nudity (on an older woman)

Brief depiction of oral sex

A couple scenes feature the portrait of lesbian intercourse

Moderate amount of language including F-words

A few scenes of graphic violence including a shot of cut off body parts.

Photographs of topless women in a jail cell

"The Grand Budapest Hotel" feels like it was ripped straight from the pages of a Roald Dahl book. It has a cartoony tone and off-beat characters that make it one of my favorite movies to come out this year.

The story is told to a writer (Jude Law) by the owner of a failing hotel named Zero (F. Murray Abraham). It is about how he obtained the building in the first place. He started out as a lobby boy (Tony Revolori), who was trained by a concierge with a lot of emotional baggage named M. Gustave (Ralph Fiennes). 

Gustave is...ahem...close with a lot of rich old women who come through the hotel. When one of them dies, he and young Zero go to her funeral. When members of the woman's family find out that a very valuable item has been set aside for the concierge by a document she wrote, they are outraged. This starts a chain of events that leads to the imprisonment of Gustave and a wacky adventure to prove his innocence.

Even more than a quirky adventure story, this film is about a developing, loving relationship between the Gustave and Zero. There is an interesting father-son dynamic to them. When Zero first becomes the lobby boy, Gustave is a little hesitant about it. It is never said explicitly, but it seems that when Zero says he does not have a family, the concierge is more sympathetic and lets him have the job.

Writer/director Wes Anderson does a great job making the characters likable. They are not only entertaining to watch, they are relatable. There are so many details that make them seem real. This makes it easy to care about them and adds intensity to suspenseful moments.

One such character is Gustave. He has obvious flaws. He is conceited and has inappropriate relationships with rich, needy older women. However, the way he treats people, especially Zero, outweighs everything. Ralph Fiennes, who I know as Lord Voldemort, does an excellent job in his portrayal. In fact, his performance is so mesmerizing that it is impossible to look away when he is on screen.

This is the first major motion picture Tony Revolori has been in, and judging by the quality of his performance as Zero, I would not mind seeing him in more. He is a great actor who brings a sense of charming awkwardness to the character. Along with Zero's lover, Agatha (Saoirse Ronan), he seems to have been pulled from the world of "Napoleon Dynamite." 

Wes Anderson keeps the film visually appealing. The shots are often beautiful and often hilarious. A lot of the comedy comes from quick, quirky cuts that give it a cartoony feel. Several of the most funny scenes are impossible to describe why they are funny.