The Grand Budapest Hotel Review

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I’ll be honest. I’m a massive Wes Anderson nerd. So when I first heard about The Grand Budapest Hotel coming out and saw the actors and actresses who would be in it I actually did a squeal. Yes, I am that sad.

Anyway, I’ll stop myself before I go into a huge Wes Anderson film discussion here. You may be here for hours and I’m sure you wouldn’t want that.

The Grand Budapest hotel is pretty much a story within a story. The film is narrated for us and consists of three prologues which all link together.

In the first prologue the narrator introduces us to Gustave H (Ralph Fiennes), the owner of the hotel. He’s suave, sophisticated and loves an older lady (80 and older being his desired cougar age). He decides to take on and mentor his faithful lobby boy Zero (Tony Revolori), but this quickly turns on its head as he finds out his most recent lover, Madame D (Tilda Swinton), has been murdered.

In her will, she leaves Gustave a priceless painting called “Boy with Apple” which frustrates and angers he son Dimitri (Adrien Brody). Gustave finds out he is accused of Madame D’s murder and we spend the rest of the film watching him and Zero try to find what actually happened, alongside an array of fantastic actors such as Edward Norton, Bill Murray and Willem Dafoe.

Ralph Fiennes is perfect as Gustave H. He’s hilariously witty and you can’t help but love him. The story line is insane, but is pulled off brilliantly by Anderson as everything is so meticulous. If you’ve watched his films before, you’ll know even the smallest details are planned. He even uses the same font (Futura Bold) in most of his films.

A poster for The Grand Budapest Hotel with a huge picture of Ralph Fiennes sideways surrounded by other actors faces at the bottom of the poster. The names of all these actors surround the sides of Ralph Fiennes face and head. The poster is in black and white.

Grand Budapest Hotel poster. Photo: Peter Strain Illustrations.

A poster for The Grand Budapest Hotel with a huge picture of Ralph Fiennes sideways surrounded by other actors faces at the bottom of the poster. The names of all these actors surround the sides of Ralph Fiennes face and head. The poster is in black and white.

Grand Budapest Hotel poster. Photo: Peter Strain Illustrations.

A poster for The Grand Budapest Hotel with a huge picture of Ralph Fiennes sideways surrounded by other actors faces at the bottom of the poster. The names of all these actors surround the sides of Ralph Fiennes face and head. The poster is in black and white.

Grand Budapest Hotel poster. Photo: Peter Strain Illustrations.

The setting of The Grand Budapest Hotel and the interior of it literally made me pine for it to be real. I mean, a luxurious giant pink hotel, who doesn’t want to go to it?!

It’s hard to go into all the details of the film without giving most of it away, but the action will keep you glued to the screen, certain parts will make you cry laughing and other parts will make you gasp. Anderson’s world will have you leaving the cinema with your head in the clouds. It left me with an expression like that baby in the sun from The Teletubbies had.

The baby in the sun from The Teletubbies smiling,

This was my expression during the entire film. I’m not even joking. Photo: via Google.

So, the ultimate question is, is The Grand Budapest worth a watch? It’s a definite yes from me.

If you haven’t seen the trailer yet, then a) I am incredibly disappointed in you, and b) here it is: