The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014) * * *

Directed by:  Wes Anderson

Starring:  Ralph Fiennes, F. Murray Abraham, Jude Law, Tony Revolori, Tilda Swinton, Willem Dafoe, Adrien Brody, Owen Wilson, Bill Murray, Harvey Keitel, Edward Norton

Wes Anderson films are unlike any other.    They are part flights of fancy, part active and fertile imagination, and usually have an all-star cast like Woody Allen movies.     Woody Allen movies are more or less grounded in reality, with the occasional tip towards fantasy, while Wes Anderson's movies take place in a world like the one in The Grand Budapest Hotel.     It snows in virtually every scene, although there appears to be little accumulation on the ground.      Characters behave in ways that kinda sorta resemble real people, but are afforded their own idiosynchrasies.     The hotel itself looks like plenty of posh hotels you've seen, but the porters have "Lobby Boy" stitched on their hats and nearly everyone has a funny moustache.     And don't forget the elevator that takes guests in what looks like a covered ski lift to the hotel which sits on top of a large mountain.     

That only scratches the surface to the film's surprises.    The funny thing is The Grand Budapest Hotel matches previous Wes Anderson films in terms of tone and visual texture, yet this one worked for me better than the others.     I enjoyed The Royal Tenenbaums (2001) immensely, which I find to be the most human of all of his films.     The Grand Budapest Hotel is cheerfully goofy and maintains a pleasant tone.     It even has a plot, which involves the hotel's concierge (Fiennes) possible involvement in the murder of one of the hotel's frequent guests.     The concierge, named Gustave H, seemingly has the rigidity of Anthony Hopkins' butler in The Remains Of The Day, but unlike Hopkins' butler, is more than willing to sleep with elderly rich women and bend the rules to his advantage.    Fiennes is charming and has a ball with this role, which is unlike any he has ever played.    The closest thing Fiennes has a ever played to comedy was Maid In Manhattan (with Jennifer Lopez), if you would even count that.     I always sensed he had this versatility in him, if given the right opportunity.   Oh, and he did lend the voice to the villain in the claymation film Wallace & Gromit:  The Curse of the Were-Rabbit.

The actors all know they are partaking in a world they aren't used to playing in.    Some Anderson veterans like Bill Murray, Edward Norton, Owen Wilson, Jason Schwartzman, and Adrien Brody are on hand, but the actors new to the Anderson universe also act with heedless joy.     The thrust of the plot takes place in 1932, when war loomed in Europe.    The aggressors are for all intents and purposes Nazis (even though Nazis didn't rise to power until 1933 and didn't begin its aggression until later in the decade), but no matter, Anderson manages to sidestep even that potentially gloomy plot point and maintain the good cheer.     

The Grand Budapest Hotel is a lot like Anderson's previous films, yet completely different.     I was more drawn in this time, more interested, and more curious to see what was up the director's sleeve.      The last Wes Anderson film was Moonrise Kingdom (2012), which was not a success for me.     I found it to be tiresomely twee.     The Grand Budapest Hotel is certainly not tiresome, nor twee.