FEATURE FRIDAY | THE GRAND BUDAPEST HOTEL
Welcome to another installment of Feature Friday, in which we share with you some of our favorite Movies & TV shows! This week, The Grand Budapest Hotel! When we first were dating one of the things we bonded over was chatting about some of our favorite shows. We’ve found that is the same for a lot of our couples too! So, every now and then, we will showcase a different movie or show and share some of the reasons why we recommend it and the things that we really like about it. So be sure to tune in, check out some of our favorites, and maybe even turn it into a date night with your fiance! Make dinner or order in and tune in to watch one of our favorites.
This week: The Grand Budapest Hotel
Wes Anderson has built a career out of telling stories that are ostensibly grounded in the real world but filled with a unique kind of whimsy that borders on fantasy. The Grand Budapest Hotel sits firmly on that fence.
In the fictional Republic of Zubrowka, M. Gustave (played by Ralph Fiennes) is the concierge at the titular hotel. An eccentric fellow who enjoys providing exceptional service, particularly to the series of aging blond women who seek him out personally. He is training a new “lobby boy,” named Zero (played by Tony Revolori, who you probably saw this summer as Flash Thompson in Spider-Man: Homecoming and who you probably DIDN’T see in the underrated Table 19).
One of Gustave’s regulars, Madame D, passes away unexpectedly and foul play is assumed. And M. Gustave is the prime suspect after it is determined that Madame D left him a very expensive painting in her will. D’s son Dmitri (Adrien Brody) points the finger squarely at Gustave and sends his henchman Jopling (Willem Defoe) to kill the only man who can prove Gustave’s innocence, her butler Serge (Mathieu Amalric).
If that seems like a lot to follow, just wait until the prison break, a murder on a train, and actual warfare. This is a movie where a lot happens, but the actual action takes a backseat to the fantastic characters. A lot of Anderson regulars are here, including Bill Murray, Jason Schwartzman, and Owen Wilson in addition to the fantastic actors already mentioned. Plus, throw in Saoirse Ronan, Edward Norton, Jeff Goldblum, Harvey Keitel, F. Murray Abraham, Jude Law, Tom Wilkinson, Tilda Swinton… Like we said. There’s a lot going on here.
Wes Anderson can be something of an acquired taste. If you prefer your stories to fit neatly into one genre or another, he’s probably not for you. The Grand Budapest Hotel is the seventh movie he’s directed, written, and produced, but it’s probably the most accessible. So if you want to dip your toe in the water of bizarre characters having ridiculous adventures, then The Grand Budapest Hotel is a great jumping-off point.
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