The struggles of the Lumpen Proletariat in a Screw-Ball Comedy that is highly entertaining.

Rating: 9/10 (30 March 2014)

Wes Anderson's Lumpen Hotel
Wes Anderson's new film, The Grand Budapest Hotel, is a testament to the yearnings of the lumpen proletariat in the fictitious town of Zubrowka in Eastern Europe before WWI. Mr. Gustave, the hotel's long-time concierge gets ahead in the world by pleasing the bourgeois guests of the famous hotel, anticipating their every need. He teaches his right-hand man, Zero the lobby boy, the ways of the world. Their goal is to satisfy the upper crust, and thus, advance in the world that has little in it for them otherwise. The relationship between Gustave and Zero is a delightful symbiosis of master and student. While Gustave thinks he is doing Zero a favor, he benefits from their friendship as much as Zero does.
The movie is visually stunning, high-class kitsch. And unlike many of Anderson's other films, the plot in Hotel is well drawn out yet not simple. Ralph Fiennes as Gustave is amazing; he can act out whole scenes with just his facial twitches. Tony Revolori plays Zero Mustafa as a boy, an innocent who is anything but a dullard, with great aplomb considering it's his first major film. Note: As of this writing, neither IMDb nor Rotten Tomatoes lists Mr. Revolori in the credits for the film.
That is strange, since he plays the second most important role in the film. The rest of the cast play their roles to various degrees of success. F. Murray Abraham is especially entertaining playing the melancholy yet satisfied Mustafa as an adult.
Boiled down to its essence, The Grand Budapest Hotel is a screwball comedy set in a fictionalized nation not unlike the Marx Brothers' Duck Soup. The jokes are more low key and the dialogue is not as ridiculous in Hotel. And to Anderson's credit, the dialogue in Hotel is not pretentious. We can also thanks Fiennes for delivering his lines with tongue-in-cheek sincerity. And of course, the plot is more clever than Duck Soup without being vainglorious as characterizes some of Anderson's other movies.
Rating: Full Price
The movie is, nor is Anderson, as groundbreaking as other critics state. We won't think of the film as a "classic" in twenty years, but it's a thoroughly entertaining romp that is meant for the large screen.
Peace, Tex Shelters