The Grand Budapest Hotel

3 1/2 out of 4 Stars

In his seventh film, The Grand Budapest Hotel, Wes Anderson examines the unconditional need to capture the past with grace and elegance in the face of terror and bewilderment. The result, a delectable and lighthearted journey that secures Anderson's position as one of the great comedic and heartfelt filmmakers in recent memory. His impeccable obsession with detail mixed with the quirkiness of his protagonists is a pleasure to devour with your eyes and ears.

Set in the non-existent European country of Zubrowka, Monsieur Gustave (Ralph Fiennes) is the concierge of the Grand Budapest Hotel; a charming man with a penchant for perfume, poetry, and pleasuring the elderly women that stay at the hotel. While running the hotel, Gustave mentors Zero (Tony Revolori), a beloved lobby boy who is taken under Gustave's heavily-perfumed wing. After one of his flames, Madame D. (Tilda Swinton), dies of a mysterious death, Gustave is named in her will as the owner of her most priceless painting, much to the dismay of her hotheaded son, Dimitri (A hilarious Adrien Brody), and his henchman (A chilling Willem Dafoe). As a result to Gustave's good fortune, murder, adventure, and romance ensue in the tradition of Jean Renoir's The Grand Illusion and Robert Altman's Gosford Park, yet through the kelidoscopic eyes of Wes Anderson.

Charming and funny, Ralph Fiennes gives a stellar performance as the regimented, yet flawed, Gustave. Tony Revolori is unforgettable as the loyal Zero; it would be hard to imagine not seeing Revolori resurface in another Anderson picture, or indeed, in whatever comes his way next. The rest of the cast, which consist of Anderson's regular actors, add to the fun and warmhearted adventure. Based on the writings of Viennese writer, Stefan Zweig, Anderson and Hugo Guinness have crafted a story that fits the mold of Anderson's previous stories about father-son relationships, yet with the intoxicating images of Anna Pinnock's set designs of the hotel and shot with the sharply focused eyes of Anderson's long-time cinematographer, Robert Yeoman.

As repetitious as my praise for The Grand Budapest Hotel is, the only quote I can think up to sum up the experience comes from the immortal lyrics of the Eagles, "You can check out anytime you like, but just can never leave."