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8.6/10
FilmFascination Rating
The shame is that all those beautiful symmetric frames were the ones I had already seen. The surprise by which the audience needs to watch them, I have been robbed of it by my mobile screen. I really curse it.
The movie begins with a woman visiting the shrine of a well-known writer, referred to simply as ‘Author’. She reads his favourite book, “The Grand Budapest Hotel,” which recounts his dinner with Zero Mustafa, the owner of the once-grand but now a washed-down hotel, as a lobby boy under the guidance of Monsieur Gustave H. Things take a turn when one of the old, wealthy clients (as all his clients are), Madame D, of ‘The Grand Budapest Hotel’ mysteriously dies and Gustave H is arrested for her murder.
If I think about ‘The Grand Budapest Hotel’ in a very minute sense, the exciting part isn’t the plot. It is the moments in the film when we are brought back to our senses to realise that Zero is telling us his life story. That is what sticks with us. The long timeline from the girl in the shrine, young naïve Zero to the old Zero who has seen life gives depth to the movie. It takes a while, even for a person like me, to realise in this gorgeously striking pink beauty what it is really about. It is about friendship, aspirations, relationships, and more importantly (and unexpectedly) humanity.
There are many characters (a little too much) and those played by so many fine actors. Still, the only two you’ll be close to are Zero and Mr. Gustave. They are so close to the screen that you’ll feel, you are the third member in what all that is going on. From those training interview questions between them to the snow cart action sequence, you’ll feel right beside them. To whoever it may concern, the setting of the film also includes a prison, some train commute, and a delicious bakery. And yet somehow it feels as if we are enclosed in Anderson’s small world. Because it is evident that it is a created one.
May it be his style or an achievement, Wes Anderson uses all the artistry to bold use in this movie. The perfect camera angles, the letters stating everything that it is, the old pictures, and whatnot. More than anything, watch this one for how beautifully it is made. Even the way how it quickly catches its pace in storytelling. Something any movie lover would adore for its filmmaking.
I wouldn’t say that it lacks depth, but it is difficult to say, what one must take seriously. Was I supposed to laugh when the guy throws the cat out of the window or be serious and take it as a threat? And this is a genuine question. With everything so neat and tidy, I often questioned if it was all just icing with no cake beneath it. Spoiler: It has the cake, and it’s unlike anything you’ve seen before. There are so many scenes where you feel something, and don’t take it for a coincidence. The little outbursts of vulgarity, the poetry, and the off-beat dialogues (I could literally jot them down here) that make you remember this movie are well-crafted and not merely coincidental. That scene, when Gustave takes Zero’s side for the first time and says, “Take your hands off my lobby boy,” is so heartfelt, and that was possible because of the actors.
Take it as you like, but it might take the first viewing to understand how you should watch ‘The Grand Budapest Hotel’. What happens is, it takes one to reach the end to realise what it was all about. Perhaps, I’ll answer the question I asked earlier myself. All the cruelty and ruthlessness in the movie is always evident, but we, as viewers, are always deluded to look at it from a fairy tale perspective. There is one remark in the movie-“He certainly maintained the illusion with remarkable grace,”. Perhaps, this movie does the same. And all that is there beyond that is merely a device.
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