Charming characters and beautiful visuals

Rating: 8/10 (22 August 2014)

Wes Anderson produces another charming adventure in The Grand Budapest Hotel that is full of interesting characters.
We embark on a splendid adventure within The Grand Budapest Hotel told by Mr. Zero Moustafa, the one time lobby-boy and now lofty owner of the establishment. We travel back in time to the 1930's at the hotel's peak of grandiosity to meet the beguiling M. Gustave, Zero's one time predecessor and mentor. A battle of fortune and theft sets forward a monumental ordeal involving an insurmountable many.
M. Gustave is a meticulous man with a taste for the finest comforts in life. Ralph Fiennes plays the bourgeois concierge completely straight and, yet, is the source of most laughs in this comedy and is wonderful to watch. The rest of the film is a who's who of well-known actors in fully realized idiosyncratic character performances. Expect to see Edward Norton, Willem Dafoe, Jeff Goldblum, Jude Law, Tilda Swinton, Adrien Brody, among others we've grown accustomed in a Wes Anderson film, though I won't ruin the surprise.
When you look at the film in parts it is masterful. The visuals and sets are luxuriously stunning, beyond anything you could imagine and a dream. The acting is top notch and characters intriguing. The story is entertaining and funny and especially unique. The music by Alexandre Desplat is charming and complementary. And yet, I feel as though the film doesn't come together as Mr. Anderson wished.
Wes Anderson films tend to be rife with characters and plot lines. The Grand Budapest Hotel jumps from each strand without fully completing or connecting at its conclusion, especially in regard to minor characters.
While thoroughly enjoyable and charming as a film, if more time were taken to develop some subplots, remove others, and intertwine the rest, The Grand Budapest Hotel would easily have been one of Wes Anderson's finest creations.
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