In The Grand Budapest Hotel Director Wes Anderson shows off his distinctive sensibility and a consistent visual style.
The film recounts the adventures of Gustave H, a legendary concierge at a famous European hotel between the wars; and Zero Moustafa, the lobby boy who becomes his most trusted friend.
In Cinemas from March 7, 2014.
New York Times The Grand Budapest Hotel review by AO Scott
The Grand Budapest Hotel, Mr Anderson’s eighth feature, will delight his fans, but even those inclined to grumble that it’s just more of the same patented whimsy might want to look again. As a sometime grumbler and longtime fan, I found myself not only charmed and touched but also moved to a new level of respect.
This movie makes a marvelous mockery of history, turning its horrors into a series of graceful jokes and mischievous gestures. You can call this escapism if you like. You can also think of it as revenge.
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LA Times Grand Budapest Hotel review by Kenneth Turan
Gustave H, it turns out, is not only the concierge of the Grand Budapest but also the main reason many visitors come in the first place. This is especially true of a group of elderly female guests of substantial income who rely on this most accommodating of men for the romantic/sexual services he is always willing to provide.
First among equals is the fabulously wealthy 84-year-old dowager countess Madame Celine Villeneuve Desgoffe und Taxis, familiarly known as Madame D. (Yes, that’s Tilda Swinton under five hours of daily makeup and a Bride of Frankenstein wig).
Rating:
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The Guardian Grand Budapest Hotel review by Peter Bradshaw
Ralph Fiennes is on glorious form as Monsieur Gustave, the legendary concierge of the Grand Budapest Hotel in the early 1930s: a gigantic edifice in the mountains. It’s a cross between Nicolae Ceausescu’s presidential palace in Bucharest and the Overlook Hotel in Kubrick’s The Shining.
Gustave can also lapse into high-camp familiarity with the guests. Fiennes is absolutely brilliant in all this. I can imagine Christoph Waltz or Dirk Bogarde in the role, but neither would have been as good.
Rating:
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Entertainment Weekly Grand Budapest Hotel review by Owen Gleiberman
As a critic, I have spent more than 15 years not responding to the films of Wes Anderson. That marks me as a heretic in some circles, but what has always been frustrating to me — and a little mysterious — about my rejection of the Anderson aesthetic is that I truly do recognize what a gifted and original filmmaker he is.
But now I’ve had my Wes Anderson breakthrough — or maybe it’s that he’s had his. The Grand Budapest Hotel is a marvelous contraption, a wheels-within-wheels thriller that’s pure oxygenated movie play.
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