Come stay at The Grand Budapest Hotel

Last updated on: March 14, 2014 at 11:13 am by Andrew Collins

Come stay at The Grand Budapest Hotel 2014-03-14T11:13:04-06:00 Andrew Collins

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Every once in a while I run across a film that I don’t understand – and frankly, don’t even see the point of – yet still find immensely enjoyable. Wes Anderson’s The Grand Budapest Hotel is one of those films.

Set somewhere in a fictionalized European nation called the Republic of Zubrowka circa 1932, The Grand Budapest Hotel recounts the story of Zero, a young orphan from a war-torn country who lands a job as a bell hop in The Grand Budapest Hotel. It flows something like a storybook, with plenty of bright colors, a flair for the theatrical, moments of cartoonish action, and a hotel that looks like a cake. It starts in the present day, with a writer at his desk bluntly breaking the fourth wall and telling the audience about the story he is about to recount, which was told to him back during a stay at the Grand Budapest Hotel by the owner himself. Safely buried and filtered under two narrators, the tragic rags-to-riches tale begins.

At the center of said tale is Monsieur Gustave H. (Ralph Fiennes), the hotel’s concierge and epitome of an English gentleman. His diction is impeccable and sophisticated, his love for poetry delightful and spontaneous, and his alacrity for the task of hotel management venerable and disciplined. But though having all the outward marks of a gentleman his honor suffers at several points. Namely, he fornicates shamelessly with a certain category of clientele: old, wealthy, lonely, desperate blonde women (yes, for some reason, notes the narrator curiously, they were always blonde). It is this vice that lands him in trouble and so provides the film’s inciting incident. When one of his mistresses passes away, she leaves behind a massive inheritance. The most valuable of all her possessions, a painting of unsurpassed beauty called “Boy with Apple,” she bequeaths in a last-minute will to M. Gustave. Her surviving family, of course, is furious and prepared to challenge the legitimacy of the will, so he secretly takes the painting with him after paying his respects and before all the legalities can be worked out.

The subsequent adventures involve a prison escape, running from a brass-knuckled hit man (played by a perfectly typecast Willem Dafoe) and a ski chase down a hill from a monastery called Our Holy Father of the Sudelten Waltz. They all culminate in a generally happy ending in the short term. (SPOILERS) That is, at the end of the film’s retelling. Zero gets married to a girl from the bakery and M. Gustave gets the inheritance and the Grand Budapest. But shortly after Zero notes that his wife died from a now easily treatable disease, and his beloved friend and mentor, M. Gustave, soon passed away as well, leaving everything to him to enjoy in loneliness and decay.

It leaves the audience with a tension that, upon reflection, I could only laugh at. How are you supposed to feel after that?

If there is anything redemptive to be found in The Grand Budapest Hotel, it is Anderson’s creative world-building and artistic flair. He manages to construct an entire universe by reinventing 1930s Europe so that it is ahistorical – reminiscent of our world in style and ethnic dynamic yet entirely different in particulars, full of European-sounding names and Gestapo-like soldiers. The makeover works because we understand it and can make sense of the characters while encountering something entirely fresh. And while the film may not have the emotional weight to tug on our heartstrings, it has heart in the sense that the film as a whole – as a work of art – is a labor of love, carefully (if irreverently) crafted into something quite impressive.

I’m still not sure exactly what this “something” is, but whatever it is one can’t contest that The Grand Budapest Hotel is wicked, wicked smart. Many of the deadpan jokes drop after a series of quick, accented, brilliantly crafted lines (I would watch it again for this very reason). Others humorous moments come in bursts of unexpected profanity, violence, and the taboo. Combined, these form an avant-garde color of comedy that appeals to both the sophisticated and edgy impulses of a well-versed filmgoer. The cinematography further enhances this deadpan humor with deadpan shots – straightforward and blunt, with just the right pacing to perfectly land every punch line.

Even without catching every clever moment, I at least walked out of The Grand Budapest Hotel with the satisfying sense that I had seen something with some original thought behind it, which is more than we can say about a lot of movies these days. And as for the storybook absurdity, well, it adds to the charm. Memory has a knack for playing tricks on us, after all, and life is more fun when embellished by a little theatrical imagination.

Previous Post

March 14, 2014

Driving Fast with Nowhere to Go

Next Post

March 21, 2014 Not Loving This Enemy

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Action AFI Top 100 Animation Best Picture Winner BFI Top 250 Biography Biopic Books Childrens Christian Classics Classics Comedy Crime Documentary Drama Editor's Choice Family Fantasy Fantasy Films Foreign Historical Historical Fiction History Horror Horror IMDB Top 250 Indie Memoir Modern Novel Musical Mystery Non-Fiction Oscars Philosophy Poetry Popular Literature Reading and Writing Reality Romance Science Fiction Science Fiction Silent Sports Thriller TV Show Uncategorized Western Westerns Young Adult

Select a Month October 2026 September 2026 July 2026 June 2026 May 2026 April 2026 March 2026 February 2026 January 2026 December 2025 November 2025 October 2025 September 2025 August 2025 July 2025 June 2025 May 2025 April 2025 March 2025 February 2025 January 2025 December 2024 July 2024 June 2024 May 2024 April 2024 March 2024 February 2024 January 2024 December 2023 November 2023 October 2023 September 2023 August 2023 July 2023 June 2023 May 2023 April 2023 March 2023 February 2023 January 2023 December 2022 November 2022 October 2022 September 2022 August 2022 July 2022 June 2022 May 2022 April 2022 March 2022 February 2022 January 2022 December 2021 November 2021 October 2021 September 2021 August 2021 July 2021 June 2021 May 2021 April 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 June 2017 January 2017 December 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

Which book comes immediately after the Gospels in the New Testament?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Romans Hebrews 1 Corinthians Acts