The Grand Budapest Hotel is a comedy drama film directed by Wes Anderson. The plot sees the current owner of the titular hotel Mr. Moustafa (F. Murray Abraham), recount the story of how he came to own it, telling how his predecessor (Ralph Fiennes) was accused of a murder he didn’t commit.
I have recently become a Wes Anderson convert, quickly burning my way through his filmography. I love Anderson unique take on cinema and the charmingly eccentric feel of it, however I feel he has hits and misses, this to be would be one of the latter.
Unlike something like Rushmore or The Darjeeling Limited I did not find myself particularly caring for any of the characters, other than the minute-long cameo of Bill Murray, I also found the story to be surprisingly dull. The quirkiness that I have mentioned before is the only thing that saved this film from mediocrity and was the only reason I didn’t turn it off midway through.
I don’t quite know what it was but there is something lacking from this film, something central and critical. It felt all over the place in a lot of different ways and seemed to lack any kind of singular focus outside of just being odd.
Overall, this is the weakest Anderson film that I have seen yet, it lacked engaging characters and that spark that the rest of his films have, very disappointing.
Pros.
The uniqueness
There are a few good memorable moments
Cons.
It is forgettable
The soundtrack is not up to usual Wes Anderson standards
The story and characters failed to engage me
2.5/5
Reviewed by Luke
Another Millennial Reviewer 