The Grand Budapest Hotel

I've had a mixed relationship with director Wes Anderson. My wife is a big fan of all his movies, so I saw (and mostly liked) Rushmore and The Royal Tenembaums, but I hated The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou. Zissou felt like the "Apocalypse Now" school play at the end of Rushmore: A nerd invites all his best friends to dress up in silly costumes, in front of fake cardboard sets, and deliver ridiculous dialog badly. Zissou completely failed to create characters, interactions, or events that simulated real life.
I skipped The Darjeeling Limited (2007).
In January 2010, we went to see The Fantastic Mr. Fox at a Mom-Friendly Matinee screening - we had a newborn baby and I would have agreed to go to any movie after three months of newborn parenting. What a pleasant surprise Mr Fox turned out to be! The stop-motion animation, little handcrafted characters, sets,
costumes, and props turned out to be ideal for Anderson's sensibilities. Would Zissou be better produced in this fashion? I think so.
I skipped Moonrise Kingdom (2012) but my wife talked me into seeing The Grand Budapest Hotel, and again, what a treat. Based on the poster and the TV commercials jam-packed with A-list acting talent, I assumed this would be a "hotel full of misadventures/every room holds a new wacky adventure" type movie, but that's not the case at all- it's a wrongly-accused chase caper, and everyone in the commercials has only a few lines, and only Ralph Fiennes has a lead role. I love Ralph Fiennes, ever since the one-two-three punch of Quiz Show, Strange Days, and The English Patient twenty years ago.
The whole endeavor is charming, Ralph Fiennes is splendid as a legendary concierge for a fading hotel, whose affair with a wealthy matron leads to a classic missing will inheritance adventure. Fiennes is ideally suited for Anderson's rapid-fire baroquely-crafted dialog. Newcomer Tony Revolori is perfect as his young apprentice.

It was light and inconsequential, only 100 minutes long, and I quite enjoyed it. My Grade: B (Landmark Embassy Waltham; very well-behaved senior crowd)