An exquisite tale of

Rating: 9/10 (22 May 2015)

Time and a tattered economy reduces a hotel's luxury and service to an outdated tacky building on the brink of abandonment, but with a lot of stories to tell. One of these stories is an epic tale of fortune, greed, and friendship at the pinnacle of the hotel's life. The story follows the main character, Gustave an over zealous concierge who thrives at pleasing guests in any way possible. The plot finds one of the hotel's guest dead and her family's fight for her will ensues. It is no wonder that the hotel is at the center of the dilemma because it houses all the secrets and deceptions of the movie. It is almost as if the hotel is telling the story. In fact, the movie personifies the hotel through the richness and exuberance of all its workers and guests.
Throughout the whole movie, the workers were historical emblems of the past just like the hotel. The hotel, the grand Budapest, was a first class institution that represented luxury, order, and hospitality. Similarly, the workers upheld the order and the cleanliness of what the hotel stood for. Gustave preached weekly sermons to instill the ideology of the hotel. However, times were changing pre world war 2 and the hotel slowly changed as well. The current state of the hotel was nearly abandoned, profitless, outdated building, yet the movie's personification of the hotel shows how old buildings could be filled with rich history.