Wes Anderson has a unique look to his work. There’s the standard color scheme and decor that generally makes his movies look like they could be set at any point within the past fifty years or so. The tone the actors speak in, full of irony and emotional detachment, is uniform across his movies, and Anderson’s sense of humor isn’t exactly what I would call gut-busting, but if you’re into it and his style, his work is often a fun. That said, if you aren’t, you probably hate his work as too cute by half.
Personally, I like his work, but I hadn’t yet seen what may be considered one of his best in the form of The Grand Budapest Hotel despite having a digital copy for years. Might as well check this out then.
Set up as a Russian nesting doll of a story with a girl reading a story by an author who, in his younger days, met a reclusive billionaire who owned the title location, who then told the story of how he came to work at and eventually own the Grand Budapest Hotel. All that just to get to the heart of the story, the relationship between the Grand Budapest Hotel’s highly accomplished concierge M. Gustave (Ralph Fiennes). The future owner, Zero (Tony Revolori) is a simple lobby boy who finds himself working at the Hotel because, as he puts it, why wouldn’t he want to work there? That’s a good answer for M. Gustave, who takes the lad under his wing and comes to appreciate the lad’s efforts.
That ends up working to Gustave’s advantage. Gustave apparently carries on a series of affairs with many of the Hotel’s wealthy, older female patrons. One, Madame D (Tilda Swinton), dies suddenly and leaves him her entire fortune. But her no-good son Dmitri (Adrien Brody) has his own plans for that fortune, and it involves first framing Gustave for the murder of Madame D. It will take all of Gustave’s skills as a world-class concierge and all of Zero’s loyalty to get out of this predicatment, particularly as Dmitri’s hired assassin (Willem Dafoe) seems to be continually one step behind Gustave.
You know, I’ve seen a most of Anderson’s filmography, and I think this may be the most Wes Anderson Wes Anderson movie I’ve ever seen. There’s the usual appearances by Anderson’s regular cast members, such as Swinton, Edward Norton, Bob Balaban, Owen Wilson, and Bill Murray, even if most of them are in fairly minor roles. But then there’s the rest of the cast with more than a few familiar faces, and Anderson does love interesting faces in his cast if nothing else. The unnamed author is played by both Tom Wilkinson and by Jude Law at different points in their lives. Harvey Kietel, looking a lot like Alan Arkin with his head shaved, is a gang leader in prison. Older Zero is played by F. Murray Abraham, who also acts as narrator. And then there’s Zero’s love interest Agatha, played by Saorise Ronan with a birthmark painted onto her face. And, despite the setting, she was actually able to play the role with her natural accent.
But the thing that makes this one stand out, despite the somewhat melancholy ending (moreso than most Anderson endings) is Fiennes. His Gustave is a model for nearly unflappable class and style, such that even when he drops a sudden bit of profanity into his dialogue. As much as Anderson’s movies have a very familiar feel to them, and something about Gustave’s demeanor adds a different sort of spark to the work. He actually genuinely cares about something, even if it is just running the finest hotel in Europe. He has a few flourishes that almost certainly come from the actor, and not so much Anderson. It made for a movie that, for Anderson, was both familiar and refreshing with a touch of something new. That alone made this one stand out from the rest of Anderson’s work.
I still wouldn’t recommend The Grand Budapest Hotel to someone who isn’t big on Wes Anderson’s work already, but it still stands out a bit as a result of Fiennes’s performance.
Grade: A
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