Movie Review: "The Grand Budapest Hotel"

"The Grand Budapest Hotel": B.  Although I've been told that "people either love Wes Anderson movies or they hate them," I'm afraid I must be an anomaly, falling somewhere in the middle.  I gave Moonrise Kingdom a B- in my July 17, 2012 review.  After being initially torn between grades of B+ and B for his latest effort, The Grand Budapest Hotel, I have settled upon the lower mark.  Hopefully my decision does not derail Wes' career.

The story is told in flashback form by the current elderly proprietor, Mr. Moustafa (F. Murray Abraham), formerly a "lobby boy" nicknamed "Zero" (Tony Revolori).  Moustafa recounts to a young writer (Jude Law) how, back in the thirties, the Grand Budapest was one of the most fashionable and desirous destination hotels in Europe.  The mountaintop inn was an architectural marvel inside and out, catering to the glitterati and the glamourous.  The key to the prestigious operation was the hotel concierge, M. Gustave, played to perfection by Ralph Fiennes.  Gustave's forte is catering to the libidinous needs of the blue haired grande dames who populate the guest registry.  One of those ladies is Madame D (heavily made-up Tilda Swinton, a favorite of Anderson's).

 

Early on, Zero, a young teenager, is interviewed for a position by Gustave, who asks him why Zero wants to work at the Grand.  When Zero gives the answer Gustave is looking for (viz., "Who wouldn't?"), he is hired.  From that point on, Zero and Gustave are inseparable.  This bond comes into play immediately when Madame D is found murdered.  At the reading of her will, Madame's family, led by her irrational and lunatic son Dmitri (Adrien Brody), becomes outraged upon discovering that the deceased matron has bequeathed a masterpiece oil painting, Boy With Apple, to Gustave.  This being a Wes Anderson movie, Gustave and Zero are able to spirit the painting away from Madame's gallery even though Dmitri and his relatives are in the same building.  Shortly after hiding the treasured artwork in the hotel safe, Gustave is arrested on suspicion of being Madame's murderer.  If not for his faithful protege Zero, Gustave might sit behind bars forever.  But Zero momentarily saves the day, springing Gustave with the help of Zero's girl friend, Agatha (the fetching Saoirse Ronan), in return for which Gustave has promised to make Zero his heir.

 

At this point Gustave's troubles are not over.  Dmitri has hired a blood thirsty assassin, J.G. Jopling (creepy Willem Dafoe), to kill Gustave.  The country is in the midst of a military takeover, with Officer Henckles (Edward Norton) as one of the mainstays.  There is a lot more story left to tell.  Anderson does so using his customary kitschy quirky scenes, many of which contain colorful postcard-like still shots.  One of his touches which I found humorous is his labeling of certain inanimate objects: "Prison Guard Bunk Room," "Air Vent," etc.

 

So, what happens after the jail break? Does the fugitive Gustave avoid the clutches of Jopling and prove his innocence?  What leads to the demise of the Grand?  And most importantly, how does ownership of the hotel end up in the hands of Zero?  The story unfolds in many (too many) short scenes, a little reminiscent of the madcap Mel Brooks movie from 1970, The Twelve Chairs (see my September 30, 2013 Cinema Scan).

 

Under Anderson's direction, odd twists complement otherwise ordinary (at least in movies) actions.  Some examples.  A gun battle which starts out between two men on opposite sides of a sixth floor open air rectangular atrium suddenly expands to include shooters on all four sides blasting away.  In another scene, Gustave and Zero jump on a sled to chase a henchman on skis down a mountain.  The slope turns into an Olympic style slalom course, with both the skier and the sledders zigzagging past the gates.  For the jail break scene, the prisoners don't merely dig a tunnel through the ground floor and emerge on the other side of the fences.  Anderson has them tunneling through several floors and stealthily crawling under the prison guards' beds (and in some cases, hopping over the occupied beds) on their escape route.  When Gustave removes Boy With Apple from the gallery wall, he conveniently replaces it with another painting depicting a pornographic encounter between two lesbians.  Gustave and Zero are in the process of taking a gondola thousands of feet above a mountain pass.  Half way across, they intersect with another gondola carriage containing a man who instructs them to switch places with him right then and there.  They do so, just as easily as if they were on a subway platform instead of a mile above a mountain chasm.  Only in a Wes Anderson movie...