Might have worked better as stop-action animation

Rating: 6/10 (16 March 2014)

I really liked Bottle Rocket and Moonrise Kingdom, and I appreciate the warmth and humor of Rushmore. I've also seen most of Wes Anderson's other feature films, but they didn't engage me anywhere near as much as those three. Grand Budapest, unfortunately, is another also-ran. It seems more like a cartoon than a story about people. It presents caricatures instead of characters and make-believe instead of history. I do enjoy stylized films and TV, but extreme artificiality only works for me if it plays off something honest and real. Grand Budapest, however, is a cold and mechanical film: a caper of sorts, with a surfeit of chase scenes and narrow escapes. It might have been a ballet danced by wind-up toys. Although we glimpse dozens of beloved stars flitting across the screen, the effect is more like celebrities voicing animated images than an ensemble cast bringing events to life. (At least it wasn't in 3D!) I'd like to see the talented Mr. Anderson return to making movies about actual breathing people. Presenting misfits struggling to find their place in the world is what he's always done best. Maybe the idea of Grand Budapest started out that way, but that's not where it ended up.