journal features

movie review - The Grand Budapest Hotel

the journal of Michael Werneburg

twenty-eight years and a million words

Toronto, 2016.02.17

This is a Wes Anderson movie in which a hotelier runs afoul of the "pock-marked fascists" in the years leading up to and including WWII. It's recounted by a protege who witnessed the events as a young man. It's got the trademark Anderson whimsy but also a great deal of legitimate action and intrigue. A substantial portion of the film is set in prison, where the hotelier makes fast friends with the resident toughs.

This has a lot going for it as well as a few unnecessary indulgences. A birthmark shaped like Mexico and a bob-sled scene leap to mind. But overall, I was pleased.

Recommended.

rand()m quote

It is not the critic who counts, not the man who points out how the strong man stumbled, or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena; whose face is marred by the dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs and comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error or shortcoming; who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions and spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best, knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who, at worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly; so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory or defeat.

—Theodore Roosevelt, Jr.