Comedy, adventure
PRINCIPAL CAST
MEMBERS
Tom Wilkinson: a well known author
Jude Law: the author as a younger man
F. Murray Abraham: Mr. Moustafa, the hotel owner
Ralph Fiennes: Monsieur Gustave, the hotel concierge
Tony Revolori: Zero, the hotel lobby boy
Saoirse Ronan: pastry chef Agatha
Tilda Swinton: the very wealthy Madame D
Adrien Brody: her son Dmitri
Edward Norton: Inspector Henckels
Willem Dafoe:
Dmitri’s pal J. G. Jopling
Harvey Keitel: prisoner Ludwig
Bill Murray: Monsieur Ivan
Owen Wilson: Monsieur Chuck
REVIEW
Once more Ralph’s Rule of Redundancy applies:
“Any film where one person takes on more than two key
positions has a major shortcoming: the absence of independent critical
judgement that results in something less than it might have been.” In this case
Wes Anderson is Writer, Director and Producer and the film suffers from it.
Depending upon what you find funny, this story of a
concierge and a lobby boy could be hilarious (as was the case with two ladies
in the audience who laughed at almost everything) to one provoking the odd
smile. For me, it was the latter.
But it is not a easy story to follow as there are all kinds
of twists and turns. The effort to keep things sorted out was just too much for
me.
CLASSIFICATION
for language, some sexual content and violence.
FOR NITPICKERS ONLY
- Modern CPR methods for non-medical personnel came out in the 1960’s, some 30 years after these events took place.
- When viewed from the front, the strap of Zero’s bag is diagonally across his chest but seen from the side it hangs down vertically.
P.S.
The painting substituted for the Boy with Apple is in really poor taste and has no business in a
comedy of this sort. Having to rely on a crotch-grabbing image to get a laugh
is a sign of desperation.
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