By: Cynthia Ayala

The Grand Budapest Hotel is a cinematic pleasure that brings a cast of wonderful stars together and conveys a deep emotional moment within all the humor.  Read on for the full review.

Directed by: Wes Anderson

Screenplay by: Wes Anderson

Story by: Wes Anderson & Hugo Guinness

Starring: Ralph Fiennes, F. Murray Abraham, Edward Norton, Mathieu Amalric, Saoirse Ronan, Adrien Brody, Willem Dafoe, Léa Seydoux, Jeff Goldblum,Jason Schwartzman, Jude Law, Tilda Swinton, Harvey Keitel, Tom Wilkinson, Bill Murray, Owen Wilson & Tony Revolori

Genre: Comedy, Drama

Gustav H., the famous concierge at a legendary hotel situated in the Alps during the 1930’s becomes the center of a farcical whirlwind of suspicion when one of his institution’s oldest and richest patrons turns up dead, and she suspiciously leaves him her most priceless work of art — a Renaissance painting of a boy with an apple. Infuriated that she left anything of value to anyone else, the woman’s greedy and nefarious heir uses all manner of underhanded and illegal tactics to pin her death on Gustav and to silence anyone who questions his objective of inheriting every penny of her estate, leaving Gustav’s trusted lobby boy Zero to clear Gustav’s name and prove that the grand lady’s killer is none other than her own son.

This was a wonderful and hilarious movie and absolutely perfect in every way. Look at the cast in the movie. Each cast member is able to convey such a deep emotional attachment while appearing to be sensible to the very end. Ralph Fiennes plays a very famous concierge that doesn’t pray on the old but rather offers them comfort to comfort himself and his own insecurities, giving the movie an emotional depth to it as it explores his connection to the narrator of the story. Each cast member has such a light air to them, even the devious characters played by Adrien Brody and Willem Dafoe. Each character was able to convey humor in the smallest moments, from expression to how they carried themselves and delivered their lines.

Then there was the story itself and the cinematography. Filled entirely on location in Germany, the stylistic nature of the film added to the wonderful humor and love created by each character. The story is rich with love, humor and energy, all of which are highlighted by the stylistic nature and miniature sets involved in bringing this movie to life. The film was filmed in three different aspect ratios to showcase each part of the time line, and the use of miniatures helped to keep the film realistic and bright, even though it was obvious that they were artificially created.

The movie is a treasure to the cinematic universe. ★★★★ (A+)