Four Stars (and Counting) for 'The Grand Budapest Hotel'

Mentor (Ralph Fiennes) and mentee (Tony Revolori) at work in swanky surroundings in "The Grand Budapest Hotel." Photos from Fox Searchlight Pictures.

IT is somehow fitting that so soon after the Academy Awards that the movie-going public should be treated to a really good film.

For the viewing pleasure is Wes Anderson's “The Grand Budapest Hotel.” The film opens today in the United Kingdom, as well as a handful of theaters in Los Angeles and New York. It opened yesterday in Germany. On 14 March, it rolls out in other major cities in the United States and Canada.

Sweeping in scope and scale, “The Grand Budapest Hotel" recounts the adventures of one M. Gustave (Ralph Fiennes), a concierge of the first order plying his trade at an Eastern European Hotel of the first order before the outbreak of Word War II. It was filmed in Germany and the UK. (See video below.)

In typical WA fashion, the story is multi-layered rather than convoluted. WA does not do convoluted, he only does multi-layered. The film opens in the present day with a young girl who has been reading a chapter in the memoir of a character only identified as The Author (Tim Wilkinson). The chapter recounts a visit he made to the Grand Budapest Hotel in the 60s. While there, he met the owner Zero Moustafa (Tony Revolori) who gave him an earful about his former august lodging house.

Here is where the action starts as Zero recalls how he met M. Gustave, his training as a lobby boy and how he assisted his mentor in clearing his name after the former is accused of murder. In the interim, there is a murder investigation, murder charge, murder trial, will-reading, cross-country chases, death threats, prison break, police pursuit and sundry other incidents, accidents and mishaps.

To bring these droll, madcap, thoroughly entertaining proceedings to pass, WA assembles a cast of the first order. In process, he also delivers a film that is more at home in the Golden Age of Hollywood than in this mad, modern digital age. “The Grand Budapest Hotel” is a wonderful patchwork that combines elements of WA's previous works – a staple of his – particularly “The Darjeeling Limited” and his best work to date, “The Royal Tenenbaums.”

It also has as kindred spirits the best of “The Great Race,” “The Three Stooges” and “Keystone Cops” films.

Half the fun of watching “The Grand Budapest Hotel,” which was the opening night film of the 64th Berlin International Film Festival last month and which won the festival's Jury Grand Prix Silver Bear award, is watching some of the finest actors in the business do their thing. WA smartly has them work within their range of comedy. To that end, for example, Harvey Keitel is not awkward as prison inmate Ludwig.

Indeed, another WA staple is assembling top talent. Perennials Bill Murray, Owen Wilson and Jason Schwartzman are checked in, along with semi-regulars and newbies F. Murray Abraham, Adrien Brody, Willem Dafoe, Jeff Goldblum, Jude Law, Edward Norton and Tilda Swinton.

M. Gustave (Ralph Fiennes) and his bevy of blondes holed up at “The Grand Budapest Hotel.”

“The Grand Budapest Hotel” arguably boasts one of the best all-star comedy casts in filmdom. It ranks right up there with “The Pink Panther,” “Blazing Saddles” and “It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World.” As for sheer star power, it ranks with another film – a drama – about a great hotel, “The Grand Hotel.”

Looking for a place to stay for an hour and a half or so? Then, check into “The Grand Budapest Hotel.”

“The Grand Budapest Hotel” is rated R for language, some sexual content and violence; visit http://www.grandbudapesthotel.com/ to learn more about the film.

Keira Knightley as 'Anna Karenina' in a Film for the Stage

ONE of literature’s most adapted works is LeoTolstoy’s “Anna Karenina.” There have been countless ballets, stage productions, films and made-for-TV movies.

The latest film version, Anna Karenina, features Keira Knightley in the role of Tolstoy’s tragic heroine. The film is directed by KK collaborator Joe Wright from an adaptation by Tom Stoppard.

"Anna Karenina" continues its months-long (through 2 May 2013) rollout across the world after premiering in Toronto in September. It opens today in Taiwan and in limited release in the United States. (See trailer above.)

Because this fine work about a wayward wife in image-conscious, high-society Tsarist Russia has been done ad nauseam, JW decided to do things a tad differently. Most of the drama among Anna, her husband Karenin (Jude Law), calvary officer Vronsky (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) and others in their cloistered St. Petersburg milieu takes place on the stage – in an actual theater.

Vronsky (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) and Anna (Keira Knightley) in a stolen moment in "Anna Karenina." Photos courtesy of Focus Features.

The director reached this decision after making an observation about these characters in late 19th-century Russia before the arrival of Napoleon’s forces.

Ironically, the Russians admired French high society and endeavored to emulate it in almost every way. This propensity is particularly striking in Tolstoy’s “War and Peace” in which much stock is placed on speaking French perfectly (which was the language of choice in the various salons) and having the latest fashions, food and flatware from France.

“Anna Karenina,” which arrived in a serialized version over several years after the publication of the former work, can almost be considered a condensed version of it without the threat and ravages of war. Tolstoy is hoeing the same rows

In any case, “Anna Karenina” director JW observed that these denizens of St. Petersburg and other fashionable cities in the fatherland – but St. Petersburg in particular – lived their lives as if they were on a stage, as if they were characters in a grand play. And so on the stage a good deal of “Anna Karenina” is set, including a horse race. One wonders how many takes were involved in getting just the right shot. Unfolding the action on stage is, of course, a little gimmicky but it actually works.

Passion drives Anna (Keira Knightley) to break with convention in "Anna Karenina."

KK, a wisp of a performer – she was a teenager – when she starred in “Bend it Like Beckham” and later joined the “Pirates of the Caribbean” franchise, has blossomed into an actor with a capital A. She was delightful in “Pride and Prejudice;” righteously determined in “Atonement.” Hers was a riveting, if not occasionally over-the-top turn in “A Dangerous Method” last year.

In “Anna Karenina,” KK is required to keep her emotions rather more in check. She does so admirably. It is her film to carry and she bears it well.

Anna Karenina is rated R (for some sexuality and violence). Visit http://www.focusfeatures.com/Anna_Karenina to learn more about “Anna Karenina.”

A Fast-Moving Virus Is in the Air in 'Contagion'

Sanaa Lathan and Matt Damon on Wednesday at the New York premiere of "Contagion" at the Rose Theater at Lincoln Center. Photos by Charles Norfleet/ASJAIS Images.

IT’S spreading. It’s deadly ...

Beth Emhoff (Gwyneth Paltrow) returns to her Minneapolis home from a Hong Kong business trip with jetlag. Two days later Beth is dead. This is where the action picks up in “Contagion.”

Directed by Steven Soderbergh from a screenplay by Scott Z. Burns, “Contagion” (see trailer below) opens nationwide today.” (Some other films opening today: “Warrior,” “Kevin Hart: Laugh at My Pain,” “Bucky Larson: Born to Be a Star” and “Creature”).

Soon symptoms that plagued Beth – cough, fever, seizure, brain hemorrhage, death –plague a few, hundreds, thousands, then … A pandemic is born. With the world in panic and a race on for a cure, politics and jockeying enter the fray.



Will the world be saved by an airborne virus that can kill in days or will money interests, competition, ego and hubris end it as we know it? In addition to GP, on hand in "Contagion" to provide action and answers is an all-star cast of mostly Oscar winners and/or Oscar nominees, including Marion Cotillard, Bryan Cranston, Matt Damon, Jennier Ehle, Lawrence Fishburne, Jude Law, Sanaa Lathan and Kate Winslet.

“Contagion” is rated PG-13 for disturbing content and some language.