grand satire in the Grand Budapest Hotel

Wes Anderson's latest film, the Grand Budapest Hotel, stars Ralph Fiennes as a hotel concierge in 1940's Budapest. As the self-obsessed Gustave H, he attracts wealthy women to an indulgent lifestyle, while training and delegating tasks to the new bellboy, aptly named Zero. So the film alternates between a contemporary recounting of the time where Gustave was told of his inheritance of a fairly naive painting of a boy with apple, and many lush flashbacks. The imminent war was a minor irritant to the glorious snatching of this painting, followed by Gustave being caught, sent to prison camp, and of course the breakout and lots of rather unusual chase scenes. It is a magnificent and satirical escape...