Delightful Black Comedy

Rating: 8/10 (10 April 2015)

I've never been a fan of Wes Anderson . He's something of a one trick pony who makes black comedies with well known casts where the cast obviously enjoyed working on the film more than this audience member enjoyed watching them , That said when FILM 2014 reviewed this movie guest critics were falling over themselves to lavish praise on it especially the technical merits and the close attention to detail . Also you should bare in mind it picked up several Oscar nominations including winning a few Oscars and considering it was released in the Spring of 2014 about seven or eight months before the main big hitters with their eyes on rewards go on general release it seemed to have stuck out in many voters minds . Giving it a chance due to the acclaim it received I found myself very surprised as to how much I enjoyed it
This wasn't the case at the film's start . "Oh dear" I thought "We're getting a story within a story as a narrator talks over a series of events . One thing I share in common with Robert McKee is an instinctive hatred of voice over since it's usually delivered in a clumsy manner which caused me to hate THE ROYAL TENENBAUMS with a passion and thought we'd be getting more of the same but I stuck with it for which I was rewarded with a brilliantly witty and delightful black comedy
The plot is relatively straight forward . A hotel concierge Gustave finds himself in himself hot water and the metaphorical water is going to get a lot hotter he finds himself in episodic dilemmas . I don't want to make it sound like it's an earth shattering plot because it's but Gustave is beautifully drawn and Ralph Fiennes makes the most of the part especially some wonderfully sardonic dialogue and insults .. He's an anti-hero with humanity and you find yourself greatly sympathising with his plight as well as laughing out loud at the absurd situations . Fiennes is excellent and one wonders why his performance wasn't nominated for more awards . He is at the apex of a wonderful cast though I should perhaps warn that despite a large number of well regarded actors most of them only appear in cameo roles . Perhaps the best performance from the supporting ensemble is Willem Dafoe as Jopling , a silent and sadistic assassin on the trail of Gustave and the house boy Zero
Despite some bad language and violence there is a very old fashioned feel to TGBH and that's not just because of its chronological setting . Wes Anderson must be a genuine film fan and I was constantly reminded of the great Michael Curtiz . Does Budapest appear in the title as a reference to the great Hungarian born film maker ? At other points in the movie I was reminded of THE NIGHT OF THE HUNTER and one chase scene reminded me of the best James Bond sequences . Typing that last line I was reminded of what a mess this film could have ended up as and yet it's a very consistent and involving film on both a narrative and visual level which I enjoyed watching