THE GRAND BUDAPEST HOTEL

It takes a great deal of skill and effort to pull off surrealist comedy. It is not, as some suppose, a simple matter of making characters say and do strange things. In the case of the Grand Budapest Hotel director Wes Anderson makes the entire world as strange and visually distinct as the characters that inhabit it. The titular hotel is filled with bright distinctive colours that mark the hotel in sharp contrast to the comparatively colourless (if still visually interesting) world outside its doors. Anderson then populates this abode with larger than life eccentric figures Ralph Fines being the central one. Newcomer Tony Revelori makes a good first impression as Zero the lobby boy through whose eyes the audience experiences much of the madness. His character is by nature very deadpan for a lot of the film and it will be interesting to see him in roles that allow a little more emotional expression, but from what we’ve seen here he shows promise. Other roles in the film are filled by well-known faces like Edward Norton, William Daefoe and Owen Wilson; whilst these performances are fine by themselves it might turn some off the film- as some pretentious celebrity-filled mush. This would be a great mistake, Grand Budapest is very funny with a witty script and both laugh out loud and more subdued humour. More serious scenes with a slightly more sombre tone manage to meld in well due to skilful writing and direction. One of the many highlights is a successful wrong footing of the audience that, though short, catches you off guard. My one complaint is a rather clunky framing story that feels needlessly convoluted and could have been trimmed down Final verdict 8/10 Highly entertaining.