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The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014)
Daniel's Review
Wes Anderson’s ‘The Grand Budapest Hotel’ is a comedic and dramatic film which is beautiful and written with excellence.
The film is about an author’s retelling of The Grand Budapest Hotel which takes us, the audience, on a high-flying adventure.
The film is written stupendous as it offers both humorous and hilarious moments, mixed with dramatic elements which is violent and scary.
The film is directed amazingly as I love Anderson’s style of directing as it is unlike any other director’s visual style in the film industry today.
Ralph Fiennes offers emotion, but also humour, extremely well and is the best acting performance of the year, so far.
It may not be as great as ‘Moonrise Kingdom’, Anderson’s previous film, but it is pretty darn close with impressive visuals, impeccable directing, a smartly written film and acted beautifully, ‘The Grand Budapest Hotel’ is one of my favourite films of the year.
Score: 9.2/10
Published: April 14th, 2014
Details
Review
Release Date: April 10th, 2014
Studio: Fox Searchlight Pictures
Runtime: 100 mins
Rated: MA15+
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Nic's Review
It is rare to find a film as delicately crafted as 'The Grand Budapest Hotel'. It is rare to encounter a film with every frame as intricately planned. So upon viewing it, I realised I had stumbled across a gem in a coal mine.
'The Grand Budapest Hotel' is a breathtaking masterclass of cinema and narrative. It combines every single component of filmmaking into a balanced cohesive whole.
From the beginning, it breaks convention, with title cards to divide the metanarrative (the story that is actually being told within the story of the film) into separate parts. Each part feels tonally unique, no doubt due to the excellent use of bright colours and lighting by director Wes Anderson, yet remains cohesive with the larger film. Each scene, each individual shot is so mesmerising that you could pause the film on any frame and you would have a picture worthy of hanging above many a mantelpiece.
Also, Anderson never takes his own film too seriously and to me, as someone who is tired of the overall Hollywood trend of darker, more serious films, this is further evidence that quality and comedy are not mutually exclusive.
The story itself is lighthearted, funny and complex, populated with wonderful larger-than-life characters. Nowhere is this more obvious than with Ralph Fiennes' character, Gustave. It is remarkable how instantly likeable he is. Almost as soon as he appears on screen, we are entranced by his quirky personality and root for his every step. Tony Revolori also reveals himself as a fine performer as Gustave's lobby boy, Zero, but Fiennes steals the film and runs away with the prize.
'The Grand Budapest Hotel' is the very definition of escapist cinema done right. However short the journey is, we never want it to end because we don't want to wake up from the dream. And a perfect dream it is, with a few chuckles along the way of course.
Score: 9.6/10