Flight of fancy

Rating: 8/10 (27 April 2014)

This unusual movie is a comedy set in a German-speaking country similar to Austria in the 1930s. The movie starts with beautiful Alpine scenery, a grand hotel with eccentric wealthy guests, formal old Europe manners and culture, and highly articulate dialogue (often delivered deadpan). The story is about the best concierge in the history of "The Grand Budapest Hotel", the ultra-suave, loquacious, dandyish, mysterious M. Gustave, and the series of adventures that led to his fortune and eventually his demise.
The plot in a nutshell: after he inherits a priceless painting from a rich, elderly woman smitten with his, ahem, concierge services, M. Gustave battles to escape the wrath of the family, who accuse him of murdering her and try to get the painting back. This plot summary fails to mention various diversions, including the lobby boy, Mendl's pastries, the monastery, the toboggan chase, and the fascist forces closing in.
It's not a natural or realistic film, but a highly stylised and richly detailed story within a story within a story. The film has a light-hearted, fast-paced, slapstick, madcap feel. I lack sufficient knowledge to identify properly the style of the film: cartoonish, camp and over the top are phrases that come to mind, but these words are too pejorative. Let's just call it a comedy of manners, a flight of fancy, stylised story-telling. When interesting stories are told, and retold, they become reimagined artificial reflections of what actually happened. Similarly, as listen to a story, we fashion in our mind's eye the visual details that bring the story to life. This movie is like that. It's not meant to be realistic. It's meant to appeal to a child-like fantasy view of 1930s Mittel-Europa. It reminded me of "Hugo" in that sense.
This movie didn't really engage me or move me. It was more of an intellectual experience. After leaving the theatre, we were unable to identify what the point of the movie was. I suppose it was a character study of the remarkable M. Gustave (superbly played by Fiennes) but since the character was so implausible, the point rather escaped us. There has never been and never will be a concierge like M. Gustave. I suppose the point of the film was just to be entertaining and amusing and appealing to the eye (like the Mindl pastries, M. Gustave and the Grand Budapest Hotel). If so, the film succeeded.