Chris At The Pictures

Whilst everyone else has been falling over themselves congratulating Iñárritu on the casting of ex-Batman Keaton in the lead role – a rather unsubtle joke – I’d like to use this opportunity to praise almost everybody else in the ensemble cast. True, Keaton is given more to do than he has been in years, but he’s no revelation: that praise should be re-directed towards Emma Stone as Riggan’s post-rehab daughter who oozes talent throughout, as does Lindsay Duncan as a scathing arts critic determined to bring Thomson’s world down. Zach Galifianakis is at long last given a serious role and Naomi Watts is rescued from the recent shame of Diana in a role more befitting of her unplumbed talent.

Cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki finally fulfils the fantasy that Gravity could only dream of, with almost the entire film bearing the appearance of one continuous shot that flawlessly transitions from scene to scene. You can keep your eyes peeled for the seams, but you won’t find them: you’ll be too busy jogging your knee up and down to Antonio Sanchez’s jumbled drum score (a lyrical reflection of Riggan’s own confused headspace) and transfixed by Keaton and his cohorts traversing the neon-stained caverns of Broadway.

From the jibes taken at the current string of comic book movies (Birdman most notably sporting a Christian Bale-esque gravelly voice) to the battle between theatre and cinema, Birdman is a film of mostly subtle comedy. True, some scenes of hysterical disagreement between Keaton and Ed Norton as the crazed method actor are played for audible laughs, but it’s the quieter hints at the superiority complex of theatre that works the real magic. If anything it’s refreshing to see an American comedy that isn’t populated with middle-aged men shouting very loudly at crude toilet humour, but a carefully constructed and intelligent film that is actually about something and accomplishes an entertaining climax… even if a clearly defined ending is inexplicably followed by fifteen minutes that really don’t work.

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