«The Grand Budapest Hotel» is a magnificent comedy by Wes Anderson with a whole constellation of outstanding actors, many of whom appear in unexpected roles for the viewer, and they clearly «bathe» in the roles offered to them. They are Ralph Fiennes, Jude Law, Bill Murray, Owen Wilson and many others — the movie poster shows them all on hotel room key tags.
With a nonchalant face heroes do terrible things, control the fate of the world, steal masterpieces of painting, shoot each other at point-blank range, swiftly changing clothes, lying, giggling, throwing cats and «accidentally» get into the frame. And at the very end of the film, you’ll catch yourself smiling the whole time.
The actors have very speaking facial expressions. Even the performers of minor roles can convey a huge range of emotions, barely raising an eyebrow.
Tilda Swinton, in her fifty-something years, played the elderly lady with the quirks stunningly.
Harvey Keitel played the charismatic prisoner, lavishly adorned with tattoos all over his body, superbly. Adrien Brody, familiar to us from «The Pianist», perfectly played the role of the cunning and obsessed Count Demetrius, who will go to any lengths to get his inheritance. And Willem Dafoe as the villain with a slight «vampire» patina is inimitable!