Simply wonderful

Rating: 10/10 (23 March 2014)

An extraordinary cinematic confection and probably Wes Anderson's greatest film. Ralph Fiennes plays the concierge at the Grand Budapest Hotel in the 1930s, which exists in a fictional European country in the Alpine range. He has a habit of keeping some of the old women who stay at the hotel company. When one (Tilda Swinton) leaves him the valuable painting Boy with Apple, Swinton's evil son (Adrien Brody) frames Fiennes for the murder. Fiennes' closest companion, the hotel lobby boy Zero (Tony Revolori), and his girlfriend (Saorsie Ronan) conspire to free Fiennes from prison and sell the painting for loads of money, hopefully enabling them to leave the country, which is being overtaken by fascists. The story isn't much more than fluff (though there is a nice tinge of poignancy), but it's enormously amusing fluff. The highly amusing trailer did give away many of the film's best gags, but this is a laugh a minute movie. The visuals are absolutely delightful. Sure, it's all nothing you haven't seen before from Anderson, but I found it his most perfect accomplishment. The film is loaded with great cameos and little roles (the woman behind me almost had an orgasm when Bill Murray appeared), but my favorite was Willem Dafoe as a toothless heavy.