The Grand Budapest Hotel review

The Grand Budapest Hotel is a 2014 Comedy Film directed by Wes Anderson. It stars Ralph Fiennes who plays Mr Gustav as a hotel worker who teams up with one of his employees Zero (Tony Revolori) to prove his innocence after he is framed for murder. This film shows how friendships are made and how they build. We see the film from many different points of view, from so many different characters. The film led the BAFTA nominations, with 11 nominations, more than any other film, including Best Film and Best Director for Anderson, and Best Actor for Fiennes. The film won the Golden Globe award for the Best Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy and had three more Golden Globe Award nominations, including Best Director for Anderson. It also had nine Academy Award nominations, the joint most for the ceremony, including best Picture and best Director. It also won four Academy Awards.

The narrative has a lot too it and can be quite confusing to follow at times. However overall it is a very well made sophisticated film. The film contains comedy and violence and although violence is used in some scenes it can still come across as quite comedic. For example (SPOILER) when a chase scene commences between cold blooded assassin Jopling (Willem Defoe) who is following lawyer Kovacs (Jeff Goldblum), Jopling shuts the door as Kovacs  goes to leave and the door cuts off Kovacs’ fingers on his right hand. This scene although violent was still amusing because it was all very sudden and unexpected and was the climax of the chase leaving the audience surprised. The use of comedy was very effective because not all the film used comedy but small remarks were often made from Mr Gustav which really lightened the mood in some scenes. The comedic side of it really helped to enjoy the film and kept me wanting to watch more.

The film was split up into a prologue, parts 1-5 and an epilogue. I liked how this film was split up because each part had a name and introduced the next scenes of the film and implicitly informed you of what will happen in the scene and what the scene is about.  I liked how a girl at the very start of the film is seen walking into a graveyard and the same girl is seen at the very end of the film as well.

A good range of themes were used throughout the film. Including friendship which was mainly shown with the bond of Mr Gustav and Zero, this theme was shown continuously and was the main theme.  Another theme used was success because during the film it showed how Mr Gustav was successful in running the hotel and (SPOILER) how he was successful in escaping from prison. The theme of love was also used usually when the scenes involved Zero and Agatha played by Saoirse Ronan who later becomes his fiancée.

Overall I really enjoyed the film and liked how they managed to make the comedic side fit in with the violent side of the film. I found it a really enjoyable film to watch but found that you had to watch the film very carefully in order the keep track with what is happening. I would recommend this film to others to watch.