Review of Grand Hotel (2008) by Alexander P — 29 Jul 2011

Grand Hotel is one of those best picture winners that everybody seems to forget. Not that it's a bad film, it's just that nothing about it is particularly memorable. The film is basically just about the lives of people at a hotel over the course of a couple of days. The whole idea for this movie is that the characters develop and then when they interact, they bounce against each other in order to get the plot moving along. That being said, the characters are kind of intriguing, but they just aren't very memorable. With the exception of one person, Otto Kringelein, played by Lionel Barrymore, a man who, after discovering that he is dying, decides to just spend the rest of his life doing whatever the heck he wants. And that story thread does raise some interesting questions about what you would do if you knew you were going to die. Other than that though, the other characters don't do anything of interest. The film really picks up when the climax arrives. The characters' lives are suddenly changed by one event, and the reactions a lot of these people have are realistic and interesting. It's just the film starts off a little too slow, which may be why people don't seem to remember it, or are interested in seeing it. It may be a weak Best Picture winner, but it's still very interesting and, in my opinion anyway, worth a watch.

7.6/10.