A tour through Wes Anderson's fantasy world

Rating: 9/10 (16 September 2015)

Watching one of Wes Anderson's films is like calling in sick and spending the day in your room, watching old movies, listening to your favorite records, and refusing to even think about work the next day.
His films take place in a universe all their own, where quirky, big-hearted man-children like "Rushmore"'s Max Fischer and "The Life Aquatic"'s Steve Zissou ignore the real world and live on their own terms. Gustave H., the hero of Anderson's latest film, "The Grand Budapest Hotel", runs the titular hotel as his own private universe of old-world class and glamour. He invites us in, and the tour of his world is one of the most charming, funny, defiantly original films to come out in a long time.
The film is told through the eyes of Zero Moustafa, the hotel's "lobby boy", as he learns the hotel business from his boss, the enigmatic, perfectly polished Gustave H. Zero and Gustave go on a series of improbable adventures - everything from organizing a prison break to stealing a priceless painting from a band of fascists - and come to depend on each other as compatriots, accomplices and surrogate family.
It's been a long time since I've had this much fun watching a movie. Gustave and Zero are totally original, absolutely lovable protagonists, impossible not to root for as they tramp through a series of weird, silly, drop-dead funny adventures. It's a rare movie that can be charming, funny, exciting and bitingly ironic at the same time, but "The Grand Budapest Hotel" pulls it off. It put a big, goofy smile on my face, and a movie that can do that has my seal of approval.
Ralph Fiennes is the perfect choice for Gustave, playing him as an overgrown child who turns the hotel into a shield from the real world that has fallen so short of the world in his head. Tony Revolori as Zero is an ideal match, the straight man to Gustave's wild card. The supporting cast is great, as well: Saoirse Ronan is sweet as Zero's girlfriend, the ever-reliable Bill Murray and Jason Schwartzmann are hilarious as members of Gustave's secret society of hotel workers, and a heavily made up Tilda Swinton is priceless as a batty, elderly heiress whom Gustave, er, "befriends".
The key to enjoying Anderson's films is to immerse oneself in the fantasy world he has created. Everyone has a closet romantic inside them somewhere, and Anderson is a master of bringing it out of even the most hardened "grownup". With "The Grand Budapest Hotel", he creates a world that could only exist inside the overheated imaginations of children of all ages. It's a wonderful place to be.
Sometimes you need to take a day to hide away in your room and crawl up into your own imagination. When that need arises, "The Grand Budapest Hotel" hits the spot.