Some Great Performances

Rating: 8/10 (22 February 2015)

With the Oscars being on tonight, I decided to watch one of contenders for Best picture and I settled on "The Grand Budapest Hotel".
Plot In A Paragraph: a unnamed man (Tom Wilkinson) sits down and tells us a story of when he was a young writer (here he is played by Jude Law) and he met the owner of The Grand Budapest Hotel, Mr Moustafa (F Murray Abraham) Over dinner Moustafa recounts the adventures of Gustave H (Ralph Fiennes) a legendary concierge at a famous European hotel between the wars, and Zero Moustafa (Tony Revolori) the newly appointed lobby boy, who becomes his most trusted friend. The story involves the theft of a priceless Renaissance painting and the battle for an enormous family fortune.
Any movie featuring Jude Law automatically gets a thumbs down from this reviewer, as (for reasons I can't explain) I can't stand the man. There is just something about him, that when I see him, it irritates the living hell out of me. (There are movies of his like, "Closer" and "Cold Mountain" come to mind) When I saw here, he was a younger version of the narrator, I feared the worst. Thankfully his role is small (like the brilliant "Hugo") and he is fine. Ralph Fiennes is excellent, and I'm surprised he was not nominated for an Oscar. Tony Revolori makes a big impression as loyal Zero, whilst Harvey Keitel, Jeff Goldblum, Edward Norton and Willem Dafoe are all excellent in supporting roles. Owen Wilson and Bill Murray have a small role too.
Despite enjoying it, and some great performances, I will probably never watch this again.