Grand Budapest Hotel - 2014 - 3.5 Stars

Director: Wes Anderson
Cast: Ralph Fiennes, Tony Revelori, F. Murray Abraham, The Wes Anderson Repertory Players

After seeing Moonrise Kingdon I swore that I would not see Wes Anderson's followup. I harbored no ill-will towards Moonrise, but like most Anderson's films I was forced to conclude that "it wasn't for me". His movies are trifles that ping pong between preciousness and moroseness so rapidly that I've never emotionally invested in them. Even Rushmore  a film about a precocious high schooler, fell flat when I watched it as a precocious high schooler. In the past I've joked that I enjoy Anderson's film for the first hour, but by the hour mark I am yelling at him to stop playing with his dolls.* If you'll excuse the cliched metaphor his films are like the confectioneries in them, beautifully constructed, delicious, but eat more than one and you'll be reaching for a toothbrush.

As one can glean from that preamble,  I was not prepared to like Grand Budapest Hotel. GBH is Anderson at his most precious: it features three framing devices, multiple aspect ratios and takes place in a fictional country, with fictional flags and military uniforms. Most of the main action resides in the eponymous hotel that carefully constructed and full of Andersonian trinkets and tchotchkes.

Surprisingly, the film won me over; it's propulsive and engaging: I laughed out loud several times (generally the most Anderson's films can get from me is a knowing chuckle or a sly smirk). I also rolled my eyes several times, had dollhouse fatigue a couple times and didn't think the film had  much to say about dealing with loss or World War II or civility or much of anything, but I enjoyed the 100 minutes I spent with this movie, which, for me, is an unqualified rave; sometimes one needs to satiate their sweet tooth.


*It's surprising that the film of his I found most palatable is Fantastic Mr. Fox, where he is literally, playing with dolls. It's to me the only film where Anderson's style matches his content. I expect want a stop-motion  animated adaptation of a beloved children's book to be mostly sugary highs. It is a romp from start to finish and is not derailed by the cloying regrets of  well-to-do dreamers.