Ultimately enjoyable movie experience: worth watching again

Rating: 9/10 (28 March 2014)

For me, it needs two viewings to fully appreciate it. Maybe I was too tired and too preoccupied in the first show. The second viewing helps me appreciate the picture much much more. It is like a very tightly-knit symphony. Every note, every frame, every line is carefully crafted and precisely shot. Perhaps with a background in advertising, director Wes Anderson is very conscious of his airtime. Watching this film turns out to be a very rich movie viewing experience – visually and graphically, in background music and of course the animation-like exaggerating acting. But the most important is the positive message on humanity. What a pleasure to watch.
Maybe the fast pace, long dialogues plus reading the subtitles made it hard to follow the first time. In the second viewing I focused on listening to the dialogue while watching the facial expressions and noticed the precise moment when the music entered. I also appreciate more the overall presentation and organization of the plot and the script which you'd better experience it yourself.
The swift mood of the whole movie has a style that resembles Charlie Chaplin's movies, as if it is running slightly on fast speed. Even the love/respect for the ordinary people are also comparable. The loud color scheme, the bold use of red and the spacious portrayal of a huge hotel remind me a little bit of Stanley Kubrick's classic Shining, except this one is a comedy with a warm and humanistic respect for the profession of the concierge.
The whole layout of the movie is like a set of Russian dolls where we open one layer of story and find more layers inside but there is a thread linking them throughout. Here we have four layers in total that goes back to a century. Starting from the beginning, we see a young woman carrying a book entitled "The Grand Budapest Hotel" when she visited the grave of the author. Facing the audience, the author (Tom Wilkinson) tells us what he writes is always based on true events. Going back to his younger days in the 60s when he (Jude Law) spent a month at the hotel, he bumped into the owner Mr. Moustafa (F. Murray Abraham) of the hotel, a very rich man who once worked there as a lobby boy (Tony Revolori). And here the core of the story begins.
An immigrant escaping war from his country, lobby boy Zero started his training by the popular and legendary concierge Mr. Gustave (Ralph Fiennes) in the 1930s. A devoted and professional concierge, Mr. Gustave inherited a valuable painting from one of his rich clients (Tilda Swinton) after she died. When Mr. Gustave and Zero went to her house for the service, a whole series of accusation, arrest, trial and chase begins. The story is not hard to follow but be sure you are alert because the editing is so precise that you need to be very attentive and literally cannot blink/slip too often.
Watching the various stars, including Adrian Brody, Mathieu Amalric, Owen Wilson, Saoirse Ronan, Léa Seydoux, Bill Murray, Edward Norton and Harvey Keitel, a few of them Oscar winners, is such a pleasure. None of them except Ralph Fiennes and Tony Revolori have a lot of screen time but all of them are impressive with their limited exposure. The animation tone throughout the movie makes it look almost like a cartoon played by human and it is really fun.
It was not until I watched the second time that I realized many details have already been planted in the early part of the movie. It is just overwhelming in the first viewing because the dialogue is fast and long, the tempo swift and editing sharp. So many senses have to be employed at the same time that I was just too busy to merely follow, let alone appreciate the production.
Similar with the Russian dolls where the same pattern stays throughout different layers, the theme of anti-war, bonding among the professionals and passing on the heritage of humanity (take over) across nationality linger on for years.
Even the end credits is a breeze to watch with the exciting balalaika playing and a little animated Russian guy dancing. Totally enjoyable. Highly recommended.