Nothing gets on my nerves like unchecked happiness. People who stop thinking somewhere in their twenties in order to celebrate the beauty of life are my enemies. A lot of these people happen to love the movies of Wes Anderson for capturing the essence of what they want their lives to be like: colourful, whimsical and soaked in a sweet, intangible nostalgia. I fucking hate Wes Anderson and I wouldn't have even thought about sitting through THE GRAND BUDAPEST HOTEL if it hadn't been nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture. That's right, I've once again embarked on that vapid journey of trying to watch (and review) every Best Picture nominated Oscar contender before the ceremony, and I would've sort of liked THE GRAND BUDAPEST HOTEL if it didn't throw itself in the garbage disposal after thirty minutes or so.
That's right, folks. I was disappointed by a Wes Anderson movie. Next thing you'll know, they found intelligent life somewhere outside the solar system.
The Grand Budapest Hotel is a rundown relic of a distant era of the republic of Zubrowka. It has known better days where concierge Monsieur Gustave (Ralph Fiennes) ran the establishment with an iron fist, alongside his apprentice Zero (Tony Revolori). The Grand Budapest had the utmost pristine reputation back then. Unfortunately, the downfall of the prestigious hotel began with the passing of Madame D. (Tilda Swinton) a lonely and very rich customer who frequently visited the Grand Budapest for the company of Monsieur Gustave, a man for who work, self and sex life don't have any definite boundaries. A man who's understanding of love and friendship were way before his time and bound to create him powerful enemies.
I was agreeably surprised by THE GRAND BUDAPEST HOTEL for about thirty minutes. Enough to make me wonder if I hadn't misjudged Wes Anderson all these years. The script is genuinely funny. The characters conceal a surprising amount of originality under their Anderson-ian garments. I don't know about you, but I think that Adrien Brody, wearing a silly mustache and calling Ralph Fiennes a ''fucking faggot'' is uproarious. It's so unlike Wes Anderson, it seems like a line ripped off from a Todd Solondz screenplay. There's a lot of unexpected cursing in THE GRAND BUDAPEST HOTEL and it's strangely soothing to see Wes Anderson draw outside the lines of his own paradigm like that. Unfortunately, this comedic renewal was just a prelude to the kind of movie everyone was actually expecting.
Pictured above: the last good scene in the movie.
Right when Monsieur Gustave goes to jail, THE GRAND BUDAPEST HOTEL reverts into your typical Wes Anderson movie. It becomes a colourful and whimsical spin on a traditional adventure movie. If your best attributes are your characters and your screenplay, I don't really care about a random sequence of events that you could find in many other movies, under a different varnish. Except Wes Anderson does care, of course. I'm being abstract here, but please follow my drift.
THE GRAND BUDAPEST HOTEL is funny and charming when Monsieur Gustave is actually talking and telling jokes. I don't care seeing him go through an elaborate and bloated jailbreak sequence or through an elaborate and bloating chase scene in a mountain if he barely speaks through them. It feels like Anderson is highjacking the scene from his characters in order to display his directorial talent. The chase scene towards the end is particularly painful, because the comic effect is based on repetition and goes way overboard with it. I was putting a rope on the ceiling to hang myself when Monsieur Gustave himself had enough and cut the scene short. It's a recurrent theme with Wes Anderson, this willingness to show the world he's colourful and whimsical above all things and it's exactly why I end up hating all his movies.
I guess I hated THE GRAND BUDAPEST HOTEL on principle. It's not true, the goddamn thing broke my heart, because it got me one foot into Wes Anderson's bandwagon before starting for the next station, having me do the splits and fall out. I suppose THE GRAND BUDAPEST HOTEL has a decent chance at winning the Academy Award for Best Picture, because it's a relatively safe movie. It doesn't draw outside of the lines except for a couple hilarious and unexpected curses. I mean, if you love life, don't read the news and already enjoy Wes Anderson movies, this is probably a safe bet for you. If you're a normal person, THE GRAND BUDAPEST HOTEL will break your heart like a cute (but not beautiful) girl that just wasn't meant for you. This is the kind of movie that an Oscars nomination will lend a small amount of immortality too.