Another grand achievement by Wes
Wes Anderson’s Grand Budapest Hotel is not the first of his many films to boast an all-star cast, but it’s certainly his best.
Following the lacklustre disappointment that was Moonrise Kingdom, we find the king of quirkiness using his vast arsenal of thespians to craft the most rounded work in his canon yet.
Anderson’s past works have normally polarized viewers, who either love or hate his unique style. They have attracted disparaging critics who either branded them as too twee or too white. The latter comment has been rather accurate in regards to his casting practices, with a few exceptions like Waris Ahluwalia, Danny Glover, and the late Kumar Pallana.
Grand Budapest Hotel sees the auteur taking that knock on the chin and then having a good laugh at himself. Tony Revolori stars as Zero, the lobby boy of the Grand Budapest Hotel in the years leading up to and during World War II. Opposite Revolori is the inimitable Ralph Fiennes as Gustave H, the snobby concierge of the same hotel. The two share a rapport and exchange banter in such a way that only seems like it could have been harboured by Anderson’s habit to have the entire cast live together rather than in separate trailers.
Prone to writing and directing brilliant movies about inconsequential matters like lost youth, Grand Budapest Hotel is the first time that Anderson has chosen to confront a decidedly unglamorous part of history in World War II. Granted, Anderson doesn’t do so in documentary-style, but rather through an entrancing narrative that has all the aesthetic consistency one has come to expect in his work. Each character’s costume is distinct and adds to the appeal of an Anderson movie without feeling over-wrought.
While films like Rushmore and Darjeeling Limited aren’t exactly appropriate for younger audiences, Grand Budapest Hotel has an R rating and deservedly so. Willem Dafoe plays a hitman who manages to make the audience laugh even when severing Jeff Goldblum’s fingers or killing a cat, and Adrien Brody’s character is the most foul-mouthed of any in an Anderson film. The usual slew of Anderson regulars — Bill Murray, Edward Norton, Jason Schwartzman, Tilda Swinton, and Owen Wilson — make appearances, with several newcomers like Saoirse Ronan and Léa Seydoux making strong impressions.
With all that in mind, Anderson doesn’t shirk away from the war’s graver repercussions, but refrains from doing so in a preachy manner. The fact that Anderson enlisted two actors in Fiennes and Norton who rose to prominence playing a Nazi and Neo-Nazi in Schindler’s List and American History X respectively is too direct of a reference to pass over; the film is witty and light at times, but conveys the tension that pervaded Europe at the time perfectly.
4/5
