The Grand Budapest Hotel  (two subjective stars) 

      Intricately conceived from writing to acting, from painstaking set design to camerawork, The Grand Budapest Hotel is total Wes Anderson immersion.  No matter my frustrations with his preciousness,  he's due credit his for commitment to detail.  Motifs and clever details abound.  In one recurring bit, his characters are given to spontaneous readings of windy romantic poetry at humorously inappropriate junctures.  

        
     The camera work is formal and severely two dimensional.  Repeating tracking shots slide parallel to the screen and most of the shots and effects are used to flatten, not deepen, the view.  Straight lines abound and when the camera passes through multiple doors in a long hallway it doesn't convey space, it compresses.   Some of the shots are clear quotes from the silent films of Keaton, Lloyd and Chaplin, when camera movement was technically restricted. Anderson's films also remind me visually of Punch and Judy puppet shows and the shoebox dioramas we made in 4th grade.  

       As in much of his work, the acting here is mannered.  There are bon mots and zingers delivered precisely,  there's no illusion of improv, but rather of an eccentric version of staged screwball comedy.  When Harvey Keitel made his appearance,  I did a double take, expecting method acting to suddenly derail the whole precarious contraption.  

        
      Which brings me to the glue that holds this film together, Ralph Fiennes' luscious performance as M. Gustav, a dowager-screwing dandy with a conscience.  My peeve with Anderson's work is its lack of emotional depth.  I'm a fan of his surreal vision, but his dedication to style at the cost of substance often leaves me cold and bored.  In the character of Gustav, and Fiennes' lovely rendering of him, Anderson brings humanity to a film that is clearly a technical marvel.  I didn't love the film, but I loved much of it and I'm excited to see what comes next.  What more can you ask of an artist?