The Grand Budapest Hotel

This film is quite bizarre, but enjoyable nevertheless.
Wes Anderson, once again, directs a quirky crew with a quirky plot to go with the colorful characters.
It is also a frame film, with many flashbacks within flashbacks. The main plot concerns a young Zero Moustafa (Tony Revolori) who is hired as a lobby boy in the Grand Budapest Hotel without the knowledge of the concierge, Gustave (the brilliant Ralph Fiennes). However, soon Gustave takes to the young recruit, especially after one of his many flames, Celine (Tilda Swinton, in old person make-up) dies under mysterious circumstances. Thanks to her vengenceful and greedy son, Dmitri (Adrien Brody), Gustave is framed for the murder so he quickly escapes with Zero in tow. Zero helps him hilariously escape from an odd prison. Gustave digs a hole along with his cell mates and then sneaking through the prison and crawling through the swere, Shawshank style to escape and then criticizing Zero for forgetting a change of clothes for him and some perfume. They escape via the help of an intricate array of other hotel managers, including ones played by Bill Murray and Bob Balaban. Their mission is to find the escape butler of Celine, who knows the truth, which leads them through the countryside, up to some Alpine mountains where skiing is popular.
There are also subplots, the main one involves Zero's love interest, Agatha (Saoirse Ronan), the baker's daughter, with a large birthmark marring her otherwise pretty appearance. I wished for those two to have a happy ending, but alas, that was not to be, somewhat ruining the ending for me, but this film, which is peppered with funny moments, ultimately doesn't have a happy ending.
But the journey is so much fun. And the cast, with appearances by Willem Dafoe as the hitman behind Dmitri's evil genius, Edward Norton as the head of the soldiers who remembers Gustave from when he was a little boy, Jude Law and Tom Wilkinson as the same author, covering two different ages, Jason Schwartzman and Owen Wilson as other concierges, Jeff Goldblum as the ethical lawyer who also meets an untimely end and F. Murray Abraham who is the older Zero and main narrator of the film. Yes, what a cast.
There is also the odd painting which Celine leaves to Gustave in her first will, Boy with Apple which Gustave steals, Zero replacing it with some obscene painting. This goes unnoticed by Dmitri for some time, proving that the painting is merely an afterthought for him, wanting her whole estate more.
The set is also rather elaborate with the hotel designed to fit two different time periods, plus the train and outside scenes. In fact, the film is almost worth seeing alone for the scenery.
The dialoge is also great, with Gustave describing the elderly Celine as being dynamite in the sack and then proclaiming that he's had older. In fact, that's why he can't admit his alibi for the murder because he was sleeping with someone else's wife at the time of Celine's murder.
Sure, this film is not perfect, with the two actors playing Zero don't exactly 'match', my mother's word. It's true, though it doesn't effect the film. I wished for a happier ending, and maybe just stuff that's a little less bizarre, but whatever. You should go see this film, just watching the characters run from place to place is hilarious. And that's not to mention the breathtaking cinematography and mesmerizing score. Grade: A-