Looks beautiful and is a lot of fun

Rating: 8/10 (2 March 2014)

Well I had not seen a Wes Anderson film before and I was attracted to this by the trailer which is full of lovely looking shots.
The film itself certainly does look beautiful and the way in which some of the scenes are shot is really very clever.
The whole film has a cartoon quality about it and some of the scenes are indeed animated such as the introduction of the hotel itself.
Three different screen ratios are used, one for each period in the film. I don't think this worked particularly well and personally I would have preferred just sticking with 2.35:1 throughout. I got a bit fed up with what looks like a narrow square for much of the film.
It is a joyful romp, however nothing about it ever touches very deeply.