The Grand Budapest Hotel - A Film Review. Zadanie Domowe.

The Grand Budapest Hotel – a film review by Oliwia Kupczyk
‘The Grand Budapest Hotel’ is a 2014 comedy-drama murder mystery film both written and
directed by my most absolute favourite filmmaker – Wes Anderson. Not only is this masterpiece
captivating to the eye with its pastel pinks, reds and purples, it is also practically oozing with humor,
absurdness, thrill, emotion, uncertainty and romance. It tells the story of a legendary concierge –
Monsieur Gustave H., at an elegant and esteemed European hotel in a fictional country called the
Republic of Zubrowka, on the brink of war. The concierge is portrayed by actor Ralph Fiennes as a
lively, fastidious, sarcastic character with a peculiar moustache – incredibly well-mannered and
highly disciplined, devoted to not only the Grand Budapest Hotel itself, but also its staff and guests,
particularly the wealthy, elderly women that visit. He has a knack for seducing ancient, rich clients,
usually widows – among them the 84-year-old dowager Madame D, with whom he has a lingering
affair. At the beginning of the film, she is mysteriously murdered and her murder case becomes one
of the main plots. Monsieur Gustave is accused of committing this horrible act during the reading of
her will, when it turns out that his mistress had signed over a priceless Renaissance painting called
‘Boy with Apple’ to him and not her children. This commences a cutthroat battle for an enormous
family fortune between him and a clan of vengeful Zubrowkan nobles, including her fascistic son
Dmitri.
Another main storyline is the concierge’s freshly formed friendship with his newly hired
lobby boy, a brown-skinned refugee named Zero, who accompanies him through all the mayhem.
Together they steal the painting and flee from law enforcement when Gustave is framed for the old
dame’s killing. Their adventures include imprisonment, during which Zero stays faithful to his
employer, who he sees as a role model and even helps him escape by smuggling tools into the jail
during visits, which he does by concealing them in Mendl’s pastries. The final break out diversion is
led by a gang of Polish and Russian criminals the Monsieur befriends in the course of his prison stay.
This bedlam is followed by even more havoc: a high-speed ski chase, a confession with monks, a local
girl’s head found in a laundry basket, the birth of a wholesome romance between Zero Moustafa and
a certain baker called Agatha with a birthmark in the shape of Mexico on her cheek (played by
brilliant Irish actress Saoirse Ronan) and plenty more unusual events. The whole film is baffling and
bizarre and it all happens so fast – Anderson style. Every Wes Anderson movie finds a way to bring
the audience into his strange little world and get just a slight taste of his genius mind.
The ending unveils that Dmitri was most likely the one who murdered his own mother for her
assets using poison, Zero marries Agatha, but his wife dies from a flu with their infant son shortly
after the wedding and he inherits the hotel when Gustave gets shot on a train by French military. The
Grand Budapest Hotel becomes demolished after almost fifty years, leaving it with only a few regular
clients that pretty much live there. So, this extravagant story of colourful hotels, aristocratic
vengeance, ludicrous escapades and heart-warming friendship of an upper-class concierge and poor
lobby boy is dead and so is everyone and everything described in the tale except for Zero Moustafa.
From rags to riches: from lobby boy to the owner of the once mighty Grand Budapest Hotel, but the
only thing left to prove that it thrived and flourished or was known at all is a small book. When Zero
is asked why he has kept the financially failing building going all these years, he answers that he has
kept it as a tribute to Agatha and the best years of his life. By the end, the pink, red and purple hues
of the film are replaced with yellows, browns and oranges, which symbolize the Grand Budapest
Hotel losing its mesmerizing atmosphere.

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The Grand Budapest Hotel – a film review by Oliwia Kupczyk

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