The Grand Budapest Hotel

The Grand Budapest Hotel written and directed by Wes Anderson, starring (and it's a long list, Ralph Finnes, Jude Law, Bill Murray (a staple in an Anderson film even if it is for only a few scenes or a few lines of dialogue), Tilda Swindon, F. Murray Abraham, Mathieu Amalric, Adrien Brody, Willem Dafoe, Harvey Keitel, Edward Norton, Jeff Goldblum, Jason Schwartzman, Saoire Ronan, Tom Wilkinson, and Own Wilson.

This is another Anderson film where the production design and over all feel of the movie overshadowed everything else in the movie and becomes like the hotel by the movies end - empty and lifeless with only a barest of a pulse.

And yes that is the list of actors that seem to always appear in a Wes Anderson film.  I've been trying to think what to write about this movie and Wes Anderson since I saw the film. What I've come up with that the one thing that either makes or breaks a Wes Anderson film is Wes Anderson himself.  He can get in his own way from making a good film.  The two best films he's made is Rushmore and Moonrise Kingdom and the main reason those films were as good as they turned out is because Anderson got out of his own way and let the characters in the movie be actual characters.  When he doesn't get out of his own way the production design and over-all general feel of the movie take center stage over everything else going on in the film and the end result is what happens in The Grand Budapest Hotel, Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, and The Darjeeling Limited.  Occasionally there's middle ground with an Anderson film as is the case with The Royal Tenenbaums and The Fantastic Mr. Fox - both of those I really like.  Like I said before when he misses, he really misses, and those films look beautiful and engaging but there's a hollowness in them that just can't be filled with grand production. 

The one thing I do really like about him is the overall feel and production design he brings to the table because there is no doubt when you see a Wes Anderson that you're watching a Wes Anderson film.  He has such a unique style for the world he creates.  There truly is no one else out there that makes movies like he does.  That being said though I wish he'd focus more character because when he does that his movies are fun to watch and the world he's created is fun to explore.

I hate it when a movie has this many actors in it yet there's hardly any scenes when those actors are acting together.  Instead what is there is a bunch of scenes of them staring into a camera and regurgitating lines from a screenplay with little or no passion but everything does look beautiful.  Anderson is the indie version of Tarantino as he able to gather a large group of actors and dazzle them "juicy" dialogue that quickly becomes rotten when thrown from the tree because it never feels like it's truly connected to what is going on in the movie.