The Grand Budapest Hotel

This review may contain spoilers.

This film marked my first Wes Anderson film and I have to say I really was not impressed. I would give The Grand Budapest Hotel a 6/10.

The Grand Budapest Hotel was well paced, I'll give it that; the flow felt almost orchestrated it was grand. I loved the costuming as well, it looked very era specific and had some nice detail. The sets were also great and appeared like something out of a film much earlier than it's modern day release date.

Adrien Brody, who played Dmitri, was a fantastic antagonist and played sinister superbly. Willem Dafoe, who played Jopling, was an even better antagonist than I found Brody to be and he just felt intimidating every second he was onscreen. Tony Revolori, who played Zero, was the charisma of the film; he brought a lot of heart to his role.

However the man who carried this film was Ralph Fiennes, who played M. Gustave. He was charming, witty and basically the only thing keeping this film on it's feet. I watched this film for his character and I came away from it remembering his character.

What a strange little film with confused themes, characters and dialogue. I was most definitely not a fan of the story as a whole and found myself becoming bored at the notion of the plot thickening. It was a strange and outlandish little film that just felt like it was talking in gibberish and really went nowhere satisfactory. The accents weren't accurate and the dialogue varied from it's usual correct era verbatim to modern day slang at points.

F. Murray Abraham, who played Mr. Moustafa, basically gave us the themes of this film in a basic narration that just did not feel all that engaging. Jeff Goldblum, who played Deputy Korvacs, was a very dry preformance and very wooden. Jude Law, who played Young Writer, seemed to represent the audience in this film yet I felt no attachment to him, nor did he really contribute to the entertainment of the film. Bill Murray, who played M. Ivan, had no real reason to be in this film and really he added nothing to it; I think it's time for retirement soon because Murray's performances are not impressing me anymore. Edward Norton, who played Henckles, had a role of conveniences and convulted plot that I just did not give a care for; he like everyone else in the film felt like a G grade actor. Saoirse Ronan, who played Agatha, was aterrible leading lady and I tried to be interested about the love story but it really wasn't interesting. Tilda Swinton, who played Madame D., had very little screen presence and I just have no empathy for her character.