I saw The Grand Budapest Hotel, the latest Wes Andserson flick, last night. I don’t like watching movies like that on opening weekend, because they draw the baby boomer intelligentsia Berkeley crowd, the ones that never see movies and then laugh at the wrong places at the stupid pre-trailer ads that I’ve seen a thousand times and hiss at trailers for blockbuster summer tent-pole movies and generally drive me insane. But, we’re in the dead period of films, post-Oscars, when all of the turds are released until the next holiday weekend, so I’ll go see almost anything that isn’t some Jesus freak epic (which is about everything right now.)
Anyway, just a few short notes on this, not a review. This film has incredible production design, absolutely flawless stuff. It was shot in Germany at some abandoned gothic department store, and then supplemented with models — not CGI, not stock footage, but little scale models that have that quirky, awkward look like a bizarre story book. The whole thing had that Wes Anderson absurdity to its look, like even the warning sign in the back of the decrepit 1920s spa talking about electrical treatments for liver toxins made you laugh out loud. That was great.
The script had an interesting bookend shell game: a girl goes to a statue in tribute of a famous author; cut to the old author reading from his book; cut to the young author staying at this hotel as it is in decline and talking to the old proprietor, who has dinner with him and tells the tale of his youth and the hotel in its heyday. I liked that quirky twisting of the plot.
Unfortunately, I thought the actual plot itself was a bit too Wes Anderson, too cookie-cutter. No strong b-story, and just plodding along on this stock adventure. There were lots of twists and turns and some good humor. But the 99 minutes seemed to drag a bit in the middle, and the whole thing was a fluffy cake, pure sugar without a lot of weight at the bottom of it.
Acting was great, an absolutely solid Ralph Fiennes as the lead, with Tony Revolori (relatively unknown?) as the young hotel owner, F. Murray Abraham as the older version. But one of Anderson’s key tropes is to have the usual gang pop in with minor roles. It always gets a laugh to see Owen Wilson or Bill Murray show up with a single line or two, but the cameos have gotten to the point where they almost annoy me. Marching on Jason Schwartzman in a funny hat (or whatever) does not make a film. It’s a chuckle, but it’s getting predictable.
Overall though, a pretty good one, especially if you’re into his stuff. It’s no Life Aquatic, but the design though, is worth the price of admission.