Disappointing. Not Funny

Rating: 3/10 (5 July 2014)

Concierge M. Gustave (Ralph Fiennes) is accused of murder of one of the Hotel's more wealthy clients, goes on the run, is captured and goes to prison. Then he escapes.
What they showed in the promos were some of the most clever skits and I thought I would enjoy this. Didn't happen. The story was simple enough but the director made it more complicated than it should have been. I believe the idea here was to incorporate fantastic visuals regarding the photography, and cinematography. And, they were fantastic. Visions of SIN CITY and DICK TRACY visuals filled my head at those times.
This story was dragged out to the glee of some and no-glee to others including me. Yes, I took a few naps along the way and missed nothing. The dialogues were all monotone which helped the road to slumber land at times. ( Monotone? Really?) Yes.
Although billed as a comedy, there was nothing funny in here. A few clever lines, and bewildered looks do not a funny movie make. I won't mention that sometimes the characters spoke so fast I had no idea what was said and just went with it hoping that something later on would translate those dialogues into something that I could understand. But, I won't mention that. HA!
The only funny thing I, sort of, laughed at was when Kovacs (Jeff Goldblum) notices that Jopling (Willem Dafoe) throws his cat out the window. More slap-stick in here would have gone a long way to being a funny movie. If no comedic lines would be forthcoming, bring on more slap-stick. Didn't happen.
I enjoyed Ralph Fiennes as the Concierge and if he had only been given better comedic lines and rose above the monotone acoustic level, he would have been as fantastic as the photography and cinematography were. Yes, yes, I do understand that his position really wouldn't allow for that but.. Didn't happen. In a word, this turned out to be quite boring. By stifling Fiennes' character Gustave this became, well still quite boring.
I did recognize Bill Murray as Ivan, Jude Law as the young writer, Jeff Goldblum as Kovacs, and Willem Dafoe as Jopling and they were okay. There were other stars in here with small parts, but they were in camouflage mode and I didn't readily recognize them. See if you can.
In the beginning there were hints of sexual hi-jinks with someone being serviced orally and later we see a graphic painting of nude lesbians touching each other. I thought there would be more of this along the way, but the director was still too concerned with the photography and cinematography and as mentioned these were fantastic and we saw no more sexual hi-jinks.
This was way too long and lost me often, but keep in mind the focus was to present the photography and cinematography and that was successful. The dialogues were entirely predictable run-of-the-mill utterances. Not good.
All in all this was very disappointing and not the class act some think it is. Boo Hoo. (3/10)
Violence: Yes, some not much. Sex: No. Nudity: Yes, a water hose washing down a backside. Language: Yes.