![]() ![]() In some sense, the Lobby Boy is an equal to the concierge, and they both know it. That single repeated admonition says it all with such lightness. “Don’t flirt with her,” he cautions Gustave when he introduces his sweetheart, Agatha, the little bakery girl who has won his heart. A refugee who has seen his entire family murdered, he tempers his deference for the concierge with a soul that combines innocence and tempered steel. And yet, Revolori is so perfect as the aspiring Lobby Boy, we might dismiss his performance, like the perfection of an Olympic athlete that seems effortless. Gustave H." "She was dynamite in the sack, by the way"Īnd his mentorship with Zero (Tony Revolori) is the core of the film, since it shows us every nuance of Gustave’s quirky character. He is affected, arrogant, superficial, and fastidious, but Gustave is also kind, undaunted, and heroically brave, not to mention artlessly frank, as demonstrated in this conversation about the deceased with his Lobby Boy in training, Zero: We should not be surprised that the formidable Fiennes ( Spider, The White Countess, The Constant Gardener) owns his role, but who have thought he could get his David Niven on without missing a beat, all the while showing us such unsuspected comic wit and timing? You see, his octogenarian mother, Tilda Swinton–a tribute to the expertise of Hollywood’s makeup artists with a wattled neck worthy of Maggie Smith herself–has left her most highly valued painting to the aging lothario-concierge of the Grand Budapest Hotel, Gustave H.Īnd when they discover a healthy dose of arsenic has helped the afore-mentioned Madame D on to her heavenly reward, poor Gustave (Ralph Fiennes) is the prime suspect. And he is even better in this whodunit.Īs in that surprise 2012 summer hit, Anderson also treats his characters with his usual bemused detachment, and many of them border on caricature, particularly the cardboard villains of the piece, especially the leather-coated assassin, played with ruthless abandon by Willem Dafoe.Īdrien Brody is no longer a brilliant Pianist (2002, Best Actor) evading the Nazis, but one of the bad guys here, and like Dafoe, he relishes every dirty deed, raised eyebrow, and none too thinly veiled threat. Wes Anderson, who most recently delighted us with Moonrise Kingdom, that deadpan tale of love and loneliness, penned and directed this. “Let your life dance on the edges of time, like the dew on the tip of a leaf.” Rabindranath TogoreĪs sweet, light, and indulgent as its signature pastry, this quirky film dances into our lives just when we need some relief from this summer drought, cinematic and otherwise. ![]()
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