Wes Anderson’s latest film, The Grand Budapest Hotel follows the exploits of the eponymous
establishments’ finest concierge, Mr Gustave (Ralph Fiennes) and his lobby boy
in-training, Zero (Tony Revolori) as they attempt to solve a crime, recover a
painting, and prove the formers’ innocence all at once.
Purely from a visual standpoint, the film is utterly
charming, the colour palette echoing that of a grand iced cake, bursting with
lurid pinks, bright greens and deep rich reds, working in beautiful concert
with the perfectly aligned and managed cinematography. In fact, this perfectly
managed working of the camera is indicative of the film in general: the
camera-work, comic timing and whimsical score by Alexandre Desplat fit together
like pieces of a well-kept grandfather clock.
There is an entire rogue’s gallery of stars on display in
the movie, from Ed Norton’s Allo-Allo-esque
army officer, to Willem Dafoe’s deadpan muscle-man and a very brief appearance
of an un-recognizable Tilda Swinton. The only issue arising from this myriad of
performers is that their accents traverse the entire globe despite the fact
that they’re all supposedly from the fictional land of Zubrowka, which is also
subject to two wars that may or may not be pastiches on the two world wars even
though the timescales don’t quite match.
The main revelation of the movie is Ralph Fiennes as a
comedy star, his trademark curt, tight-lipped demeanour channelling a mix of Edmund
Blackadder and Fiennes previous performance of Mallory in Skyfall. Tony Revolori is also a great addition, and I look forward
to seeing much more of him in the future. The comedy of the film is a
marvellous array of physical stunts, prop-based gags, animation and of course,
the vocal comedy of the stars. One sequence in particular which is a blend of
live-action and animation involving ski-slopes is terrifically funny and calls to mind the classical silent comedies of the early 20’s.
The Grand Budapest
Hotel is a sumptuous treat of a film, providing plenty of laughs and a
gorgeous visual feast that romps along at great speed and is all the better for
it. True, if you stop to think about it for too long then some of the plot
starts to come apart at the seams but overall, it holds itself together by the
sheer amount of stuff going on both visually and vocally.
4 Stars
4 Stars
