The Grand Budapest Hotel 4K 2014

A writer (Tom Wilkinson) reminisces about his visit in the 1960s to one of Europe's most luxurious hotels.

Why watch it?

The Grand Budapest Hotel is another film by maestro Wes Anderson, in which great attention is paid to production design. But if the director previously played with interiors — remember “The Life Aquatic” with its crazy submarine layout or “Moonrise Kingdom” with the labyrinthine Bishop house — this film ventures into open spaces and designs entire landscapes. And the scale of events reaches truly epic proportions—this is no longer just an essay about a dysfunctional family, a recurring theme throughout the director's work, but a true epic. And for once, Anderson's film even has the attributes of a full-fledged blockbuster—a MacGuffin (the painting “The Boy with the Apple,” around which a bunch of characters of all stripes create a commotion).

There is no point in recommending this film to fans of the director—they will watch it over and over again anyway. But the director's style, the hectic pace, and the wide range of characters may tire the inexperienced viewer. But those who make it through the first 20 minutes will find it difficult to stop until the very end of this moderately amusing and excessively touching adventure story.

This is Anderson's last great fairy tale for today: after the maestro made the magnificent animated film Isle of Dogs, he took a sharp dive in quality, releasing motley comedies that drown in their own aesthetics. Mr. Anderson is unlikely to ever come so close to an Oscar and becoming a box office director again. But I would be very happy to be proven wrong.