The Grand Budapest Hotel Review

Dad and I saw The Grand Budapest Hotel on April 4, 2014!! I've always been a fan of Wes Anderson's work, because he's always walked a fine line between genius and ridiculous. This honestly could be his finest project. I was into the movie the entire time. There was never a point where I thought anything dragged.  The cast was top notch, and may be one of the best ensemble casts you will find in a movie. The story of Gustave H. was interesting. I thought Ralph Fiennes was magnificent in this role. I've always been a big fan of Fiennes throughout the years-very good actor. He was on top of his game here. He perfectly balanced eccentric nature with distinguished gentleman very well. Following his and Zero Mustafa's journey to right certain wrongs by solving a big mystery made for a truly entertaining movie. While there were different story arcs for each character, these arcs all converged into the central plot of the movie. There were so many mememorable scenes, as well as great dialogue throughout. I also want to point out that I usually am not a fan of Adrien Brody's work, but he was really entertaining here. He basically served as a chief antagonist here, while Willem Dafoe was perfect as a creepy assassin. The chief plot revolves around paintings, wills, hotels, bakeries, and the larger than life character of Gustave H., and the men and women he came in contact with. It's a brilliant movie in so many ways-the performances, the amazing usage of color, the insanity of certain scenes that work really well, and the different cameos made for one great movie experience. Some of the cameos included F. Murray Abraham (who looked shockingly like Abraham Lincoln here-not kidding at all), Edward Norton (he was great as a scout master in Moonrise Kingdom as well), Bill Murray, and Harvey Keitel. It was really great seeing Saoirse Ronan as Abigail (actually perfectly cast in this role based on her work in Hanna and The Host). I think the other actor besides Fiennes and Brody that really stole the show was Tony Revolori as Zero. He and Fiennes had such incredible, natural chemistry. Their dialogue scenes were really well done, and their zany adventures were so much fun to follow. I really enjoyed his last movie Moonrise Kingdom a great deal, but Grand Budapest Hotel was excellent. I really can't wait to add this to my DVD collection. There are so many memorable moments, characters, and dialogue, and the cast was able to adapt to the roles really well. All of this combined with the attention to small details as well as the elaborate story passed to different generations certainly warranted a 5/5 for me. This is such a fun movie to watch. I'd highly recommend seeing this as it's a perfect example of why I still enjoy going to the movies. Among all the one dimensional action movies, comic book movies, etc. there are still some that portray artistic merit, and Wes Anderson's Grand Budapest Hotel does that in multiple ways.