Sugar-coated food for thought

Rating: Null/10 (20 March 2014)

In "Moonrise Kingdom" (2012), auteur Wes Anderson gave us an endearing love story of sorts between two 12-year-olds. He also brought in a stellar support cast, from which two lend their support again here in "The Grand Budapest Hotel": Edward Norton and Bill Murray. But then, TGBH offers a lot more, quantitatively, in this department. For convenience, the support cast can be sub-divided into two groups. There are mere cameos: Tom Wilkinson, Owen Wilson, Bill Murray, Tilda Swinton, Harvey Keitel. And then there are those that have a small role: F. Murray Abraham, Mathieu Amalric, Adrien Brody, Willem Defoe, Jeff Goldblum, Jude Law, Edward Norton, Saoirse Ronan. At the center of the universe around which these stars revolve is an absolutely delightful pair: Ralph Fiennes who needs no introduction and marvelous new star Tony Revolori, a Guatemalan-descent Californian.
The main story, expectedly, revolves around the titular site. The series of establishing scenes, however, is a wonder to marvel at, comprising 4 temporal layers and 2 present-and-young-self combinations. Layer 1: a young woman walks into a cemetery towards a statue of an author. She then sits downs and reads his book. Layer 2: the author (Wilkinson) talks directly to the audience about how this book came about. Layer 3: the author, as a young man (Law), interviews (loosely speaking) hotel owner Mustafa (F. Murray Abraham) in an assortment of setting from bath house to restaurant. Layer 4: the hotel owner, now as a young man himself, then named Zero (Revolori), finally gets into the main body of the story – the adventure he shared with mentor Gustave (Fiennes) who was training him as a bell boy at the time.
I wouldn't go into the details of the main story which is a crime caper of sorts. While everybody gets a piece of the action, it is Fiennes's show. This is a comic role which, while I wouldn't go so far to describe as casting against type, is certainly infrequent for him. Fiennes is sheer brilliance, opposite which, however, Revolori does not suffer in any way, in the riveting rapport.
Set in a fictional European republic Zubrowka in the 1930s, the movie can be thoroughly enjoyed simply as iconic Wes Anderson fun. However, for those that like to take home some food for thought there are dark jabs at the totalitarianism threatening that part of the world.