The Grand Budapest Hotel

In the fictional European country of Zubrowka, a young girl sits by the statue of the country's famous author and begins to read his masterpiece, "The Grand Budapest Hotel." Flashback twenty years to the author (Tom Wilkenson) describing how he wrote the book. Flash back twenty more years to the young author (Jude Law) visiting the run-down Grand Budapest Hotel and meeting the owner, Mr. Moustafa (F. Murray Abraham) who tells him how he started out as Zero, a bell boy (Tony Revolori) in the 1930's under the tutelage of Europe's greatest consierge of the hotel, M. Gustav (Ralph Fiennes.)

M. Gustav is known as an erudite gentleman who loves romantic poetry and woos the elderly, rich widows at the hotel. One in particular, Madame D. (Tilda Swinton) swears her undying love to him. She is murdered, and as he attends her funeral he finds out that he inherits her most prized possession, the painting "Boy With Apple." Of course, her son Dimitri (Adrien Brody) and his henchman Jopling (Willem Dafoe) accuse M. Gustave of her murder. Slapstick ensues.

Without a doubt, this is director Wes Anderson's masterpiece to date. All of his tropes are here: vibrant colors, meticulous details to the art direction, clever camera shots including long tracking shots, whimsical story line with dark undertones, a pitch perfect score by Alexandre Desplat and an incredible cast.

Anyone who bemoans that Hollywood no longer has original ideas needs to start watching Wes Anderson's movies. "The Grand Budapest Hotel" is the most original movie of the year. It's a love story between Zero and a bakery maid (Saoirse Ronan,) a murder mystery, a nostalgic look at the years before "the war," and an outright slapstick comedy.

Hopefully the Academy will remember this movie come nomination time. Cinajim would definitely nominate the film for the following:
Best Picture of the Year- everything comes together into a great work of cinema
Best Director- this is Wes Anderson's masterpiece
Best Actor- Ralph Fiennes. Never has he been more erudite and funny. People will be quoting some of his lines for years.
Best Original Screenplay- And I mean original. Wes Anderson (yes, he wrote it also) is a great story-teller.
Best Score- Alexandre Desplat hits all the right notes. He incorporates balalaika music to give it a European feel, then adds perfect music to the suspense and comedy aspects.
Art Direction - If this movie gets nominated for anything (and should win) is this category. This movie is a candy-colored cinematic confection.

I recommend everyone go see this film! We went to the Midtown Cinema in Harrisburg for the 2:15 matinee and the show was sold out. Actually, it's the first time that I know of that the Midtown is devoting two theaters to this film.

Highly recommended and we can't wait to go back and see it again!

Until next time....keep it reel!