An enjoyable yarn

Rating: 6/10 (19 July 2014)

As someone who usually can't sit through a Wes Anderson film without the urge to gouge my eyes out, this was a surprisingly painless experience. Sure, his obnoxious camera work and aristocratic narrative nonsense is in full swing here, but Anderson keeps this yarn relatively straightforward and avoids his usual quirky non sequiturs. The art direction is gorgeous to look at and this story book film works because of the structure of the yarn. The teller of the tale is F. Murray Abraham, who gives a nice performance, but this is a Wes Anderson film after all, so while there are a few moments of honesty, this is mostly a madcap farce filled to the brim with broad characters. It's all surface, style, lightweight stuff and doesn't have a millimeter of depth, but this over directed film is Anderson's most entertaining film in quite some time.