Pass the Popcorn! review

Rating: 6/10 (6 April 2014)

Having only seen one movie by Wes Anderson before (Moonrise Kingdom), it was difficult to predict what to expect from The Grand Budapest Hotel. Moonrise Kingdom isn't a good movie, despite all the good reviews it got: in fact, it's quite boring, style-over-substance-ish, and counts on people liking it because the main characters are "sweet innocent kids". TGBH, on the other hand, looked promising – interesting, featuring an awesome cast, funny jokes and an actual story and events you can follow. And after all, Wes Anderson is considered a good director, whose movies, including this one, gained mostly positive reviews. Unfortunately, Mr Anderson will be Mr Anderson, and TGBH is yet just another style-over-substance flick.
The movie starts with a girl, reading a book titled The Grand Budapest Hotel, next to its writer's bust. It then switches to the old writer (Tom Wilkinson), that starts recalling the events that led to writing the book. We then see the young writer (Jude Law), staying at the Grand Budapest Hotel and meeting its owner, Mr. Moustafa (F. Murray Abraham), who decides to tell him the story of how he became the owner of the hotel. As a teenager, Mr. Moustafa was known as Zero (Tony Revolori) and worked as a lobby boy in the same hotel he owns. The legendary concierge M. Gustave (Ralph Fiennes) becomes his mentor and best friend, and together they embark on strange and dangerous adventures.
Despite being pointless and strange (since the characters of the old writer and the girl reading his book appear again, briefly, only at the end of the movie), this kind of beginning has its charm, and nicely introduces the whole story. The setting in general is wonderful: the costumes, the outdoors and indoors, the colors and all the playing with shadows and light make TGBH a truly beautiful movie, that's impossible to watch without wanting to be sucked into its world. Another great movie quality is represented by its cast of famous and excellent actors, who, luckily, don't condemn TGBH to the fate many other movies with good casts had recently (The Counselor, Movie 43). And even the less known actors, like for example Tony Revolori, are good.
Probably the movie's biggest issue is that it can't decide whether it wants to be serious or silly. Both aspects work fine when seen alone, but put together, they just make the movie confusing – especially considering the background story is one of war and totalitarianism. One may argue that life is like that, a combination of seriousness and silliness, but that again doesn't fit the surrealistic vibe of the movie. There are also a lot of jokes that fall flat – if they are, in fact, jokes, which I suppose they are since some members of the audience in my theater were laughing hard at them. Ultimately, the story exists, but it feels like it would be the same if there was nothing going on: again, too much style, too little substance. TGBH definitely had potential, but ended up being an empty, cold and distant, although visually stunning, movie.
Rating: 6/10 Read more at http://passpopcorn.com/