The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014) Review

Or, I don't know what the bloody hell is happening, but it's a bloody good ride. 

You can watch the trailer here.

So, there's me getting all smug that I'm up to date with my film reviews for the first time ever, when I realised I forgot to review my favourite film so far this year!

I am one of those dirty millennial postmodernists so of course dear old Wes Anderson is pretty much my God, and The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014) marks a return to top form. 

Don't get me wrong, I really enjoyed Moonrise Kingdom (2012). The perils of young love were adorable and I loved the way their relationship blossomed, all over the backdrop of a young scout taking his badges far too seriously. It was perfect, and it was totally Wes. 

However it didn't quite feel right. Wes's films are snappy and full of lunacy and move so quickly from one moment to the next that we don't have time to question the bizarreness of it all. That's the fun of his dialogue. It all comes across as people talking to themselves in the mirror, reacting quicker than their brains can process speech as it is practically all a train of thought. 

Moonrise Kingdom was much slower and more indulgent. Which was a nice change of pace but not where his best filmmaking functions. I got the impression he came across this kid, Jared Gilman, fell in love with him, and just wanted to see where it would go. I can't blame him, Gilman was amazing, and Moonrise Kingdom is still far better than most films out there, but it was never going to be my favourite.

Grand Budapest however was just perfect. So much so that I came out of the cinema just plain loving it. I couldn't pick out any individual bits that made it perfect. It just was. It's not very often I can go into a film and completely suspend all disbelief. Anderson is the only director I have known to get me to put down my analysis hat and just let me go along for the ride. 

So what am I going to talk about then? Well what else? Ralph Fiennes. Well, not really just Fiennes. I'm going to shout out to a few of the cast, but if you've seen Grand Budapest, you knew it was going to be all about him.

I never thought anyone could better epitomise a Wes Anderson character than Jason Schwartzman. He is still my rock, rock, but Fiennes stole the show in a way I could never imagine. He even put Willem Dafoe in a corner. Nobody puts Dafoe in a corner. 

Tony Revolori makes a fantastic début as Zero. And manages to play the lead who knows he will never really be the centre of attention, with a quiet grace that proves silence really can stand out against a din. And Fiennes made a lot of noise.

In fact, stuff it, I'm just going to fill the rest of this review with M. Gustave (Ralph Fiennes) quotes. See it. See it now! Even Manface found it hilarious. You will not be disappointed.

There will be swearing, and there will be spoilers.

"What happened, my dear Zero, is I beat the living shit out of a sniveling little runt called Pinky Bandinski. You should take a long look at his ugly mug this morning. He's actually become a dear friend."

"You see, there are still faint glimmers of civilization left in this barbaric slaughterhouse that was once known as humanity. Indeed that's what we provide in our own modest, humble, insignificant... oh, fuck it."

"You're looking so well darling, you really are. I don't know what sort of cream they put on you down at the morgue but, I want some." 

"But I fuck all of my friends!" 

I will post more, purely to amuse myself in an unapologetically self indulgent way, once it comes out on DVD and I have watched it again and again until I can recite all of Gustave's lines. Then I may play him in a theatre version I host in my front garden to poor, unsuspecting passers by.

Au revoir mon petit pois!