The Grand Budapest Hotel / Rated R for violence, sex, and language. Also there are a lot of garish colors.
This film originally opened in March of 2014. My editor and I proceeded to a theater where the poster was prominently displayed and asked for two tickets. Sorry. The film had not yet opened although we had been lead to believe otherwise. As you no doubt recall we ended up seeing and reviewing Mr. Peabody and Sherman. The Grand Budapest Hotel, as it turns out, is very much like MPAS which was animated. Much of TGBH also seems to have a lot of animated sequences in lieu of special effects and location filming.
Now, almost a year later, the picture can be seen free on many on line services. That is something I like to hear. TGBH has already won a Golden Globes Award for Best Comedy or Musical film. Other honors are on the way. An Oscar or two are not out of the question. So what happened last March. Eventually this film had a domestic gross of just under 60 Million bucks and almost a hundred and sixty million worldwide. For some reason most of the major chains delayed or skipped this film when the original release date was nigh.
In a back and forth manor it tells the story of a famous 30’s hotel concierge named M. Gustave played perfectly by Ralph Fiennes. Director Wes Anderson originally wanted Johnny Depp for the lead but it didn’t work out. We also see a massive number of big name stars and Oscar winners in parts both major and minor. These names can easily be found with a little work on your behalf. The film details the grand 30’s era of the operation of grand hotels. M. Gustave runs his with an iron hand and a knowing mind. He adopts a lobby boy as a trainee and they become inseparable confidants and co workers. The story is also a build up to the 2nd WW and an homage to greed and murder. It is also filled with outrageous and absurd action sequences that could have been right out of Mr. Peabody and Sherman or any Road Runner/Coyote adventure. If this film were made in the 30’s instead of being primarily set in that time it would no doubt have featured The Marx Bros. Despite the constant shift of time periods, the myriad of extravagant characters and a most insidious killer played by William DaFoe the film runs a neat and tidy 100 minutes including the end credits. Filmed in Germany and Poland the story takes place in a fictional country but not Budapest, Hungary as the title would suggest. What I would suggest is that you see The Grand Budapest Hotel so if it does win a bunch of Oscars you will understand why. I don’t want to have to re explain all this stuff later.
Rated 3.5 out of 4.0 reasons to pack your bags and get on the train.