Didn't that trailer look delightful? A good movie to grab some popcorn, have a few laughs, and try not to choke on that popcorn cause you're laughing so hard? Yeah.....that's not going to happen here, so don't worry about that choking hazard. Don't get me wrong, the movie is still pretty awesome. I just wish they didn't advertise it as a comedy. The correct term would be a dramedy. There's some serious shit going down with this plot-line. The movie has its light moments but that's not as constant as the trailer makes it out to be. Knowing that it's not a full blown comedy will serve you well when you watch this. There will be tears my friends.
Ralph Fiennes is the BOMB. My God did he steal every scene in this movie. His character is such a delight, although he does love banging cougars, and you root for him throughout. There's a new guy, Tony Revolori, he's got the stellar break-out-first-time performance thing down. The kid was amazing. Adrian Brody, Edward Norton, Jeff Goldblum, Jude Law, Willem Dafoe, are just a fraction of the stellar cast. You can play spot the actor while watching the movie. Try finding Tilda Swinton, I dare you (sans Wikipedia and IMDB please). You will not be disappointed with the cast.
Hey I'm not artsy fartsy and even I was blown away by the cinematography and set design. Holly shit, it was freaking amazing. I literally wanted to pack my bags and head to that non-existent hotel. It's so pretty. It's not like a painting come to life, it's more like an imagination taking physical form. It's unrealistic and realistic at the same time. If you like historic buildings, you'll probably know what I mean. Eye-gasms right there peps. This was me throughout the whole movie:
I'm not spoiling anything by saying this, but that's what the movie is. It's a story about a girl reading a book, which leads to the plot of the author explaining the book, which leads to the author's younger self interviewing someone, which leads to the story-line shown in the trailer. Confused? Nah, don't worry, it's pretty easy to go along with it. It starts in that form and works its way back to the beginning of the story. I promise you, no open endings here, you will get your answer but I can't guarantee it's the answer you were hoping for.........
(*insert mystery music here*)
The cartoonish elements provide comic relief in the movie but man when it wants to go deep, it sure does. The thing that really jumped out at me from watching this movie is that life can be shitty but you can always choose to see the humor in that situation. Don't feel bad for laughing at certain scenes; it's completely intentional. They even killed a cat in this movie and somehow made it funny. What the actual fuck? I usually cry whenever animals bite the dust in films as I value their lives more than any human character, but I laughed. I'm disappointed that I laughed, however as noted before, it's intentional. Damn you Wes Anderson.
A must watch, but only if you're in the right mood to get into a slightly upset mood right after the movie (aka 4/5 stars)
-Vidya