I have not enjoyed a movie like this in a long time. It was a farce along the lines of the Pink Panther. Although, it did not have many laugh out loud moments.
The soundtrack stood out. Normally, one might want to remember the overture or closing credits, or perhaps a moving scene. Otherwise, you do not even want to know the soundtrack is there. In The Grand Budapest Hotel, the soundtrack is present all the time, marking a cadence for the act to follow. In the mountaintop observatory scene, even the squeaking of the funicular was in sync with the brushes on the snare.
The location and time were skillfully abstracted. It is hard to look back at that particular era in that particular place without some emotion about the time. You have to automatically hate the Nazi party and the Anschluss (joining of the old Austro Hungarian states) with Germany in World War II. But Nazis are not really important to the story as Nazis. The antagonists are merely labeled as an encroaching army of toughs at the frontier and then later taking over the hotel. We only need to hate them for the bad things they are doing to our characters.
I believe this could be the Oscar winner for best picture in 2014. But Boyhood deserves to get the Best Director award.
{BB}
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