Review of The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014) by Damjan R — 24 Jan 2015

Stylish & visually sophisticated, 'The Grand Budapest Hotel' proves that you need a wide bag of tricks to compensate for a largely empty plot about something few really seem to be willing to talk about.

Perhaps those reluctant viewers also quietly know that other than the refined visuals there's really nothing to see here, but they go along with it because of the frenetic pace and quirky characters.

Anderson makes use of his flash pan's and tilt's to great effect, but the editing of some of the scenes seems a little sluggish at times, thus not holding the desired rhetoric together. The frame is almost always filled perfectly when static, which is mostly the case as the pan's and dolly's serve as transitions.

The changing aspect ratio's are an amusing solution but don't really do anything for the film. But once again, it's all for nothing, as the story and film give the impression they are its own purpose, which is doubly unfortunate because the audience is left without much do hold on to.

The scenes tend to be written very poetically and sometimes even overwritten and those lines gave the actors fits. Fiennes is good as M. Gustave while the others just sort of exist as sketches, blending into the style over substance ethos of the entire film.

Fans of great camerawork should see it, but anyone looking for more beneath the surface could skip it.