To say that I did not originally like this film would be an understatement. Thanks to the magic of Facebook's "On this day" feature, I came across my original review. Here it is in its entirity: The Grand Budapest Hotel feels less like a Wes Anderson movie and more like a Saturday Night Live sketch lampooning a Wes Anderson movie. Every scene, character, piece of music, set, etc. turns up the Wes Andersoning level to 11. I can respect this movie for the effort, but sometimes it's ok to admit that there's such a thing as too much Wes Anderson."
Maybe I was a little too harsh in my initial reaction to this film? There's only one way to find out.
I'll tell you the scene that really did it for me. Early on in the film, an elder Moustafa (played by the great F. Murray Abraham) is retelling the story of the hotel over dinner to a reporter played by Jude Law. In the far distance of that scene, Jason Schwartzman walks through the scene and turns to the camera to make a totally unnecessary grimace. I was done after that. Look, I love Wes Anderson. The Royal Tenenbaums is one of my favorite movies of all-time, but this scene just chapped my ass. I've dubbed Wes Anderson "The Kubrick of Quirk" for a reason. He is as obsessive and meticulous about every scene of his film the way Stanley Kubrick legendarily was about his. Every inch of celluloid has been intricately pained by Anderson. I have no doubt that turn to the camera was an instruction, and not a piece of improvisation. There was no reason for it other than to show off, and I just couldn't get in to this film.
Now, watching this movie again and knowing what I was in for, I was able to view it through a new lens and appreciate it for the great film that I couldn't see initially. Upon further review, The Grand Budapest is a great (but far from Anderson's best) film.
All of Wes Anderson's calling cards are present in this film. The poetic script, long dolly shots through intricately designed set pieces, and quirky characters are all there. I also particularly enjoyed Anderson's use of different aspect ratios to delineate time periods this time around. This is also a gorgeous film that is well-deserving of all the Academy Awards that it won.
The highlight of The Grand Budapest Hotel is how the two leads (brilliantly portrayed by Ralph Fiennes & Tony Revolori) both deal with growing up and growing old (another Anderson calling card). They were both funny, charming, and self-deprecating in a way that I didn't appreciate before. I'd say that the one theme central to all of Anderson's movies is how we deal with growing up, and that's certainly the highlight of this film. We see Zero at the dawn of his career at the hotel, while we see Gustave (Fiennes) dealing with the twilight of his career, while teaching Zero the ropes. All the shenanigans these two characters get in to are just icing on the cake to a story most of us can relate to.
I was definitely wrong about this one and I'm really glad that I revisited The Grand Budapest Hotel.
Until next time...
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