The Fault in Our Stars

The beauty of ticket contests is that sometimes you get to see widely anticipated films before their official release date. Case in point: The Fault in Our Stars - an exclusive premiere, one week before its official local starting date (and even before it premiered in the US!). Even better, not only did I win two tickets to this, but a friend also won, so there were four of us.

I've had my difficulties with the book, as I detailed in my other blog. Primarily, I didn't care much for the book version of Augustus. The character was less annoying in the film, I felt. (My friend S. found his constant grinning annoying, though.) Apart from the story with the previous, deceased girlfriend, which fell between the cracks, the book was thoroughly covered. Sure, it took its liberties here and there, but the essence of the story remained.

The translation to screen worked beautifully and the end product is much more enthralling than the book would have led me to expect. The acting was exceptional on all fronts (Willem Dafoe!) and even though there was a lot of laughing in the theater throughout the first half of the film, there was just as much sniffling and nose blowing through the second half.

We laughed. We cried.

7/10

The Grand Budapest Hotel

I wholeheartedly embrace Wes Anderson's weirdness in films. If you don't appreciate the garishness of the colors and the awkwardness of dialogue you will not like this film.

The Grand Budapest Hotel is only the backdrop to a story of false accusations of murder, jail break and a strong bond between concierges of world-renowned hotels across Europe. When an elderly woman (played impeccably by the wonderful and wonderfully weird Tilda Swinton) dies and leaves the priced painting Boy with Apple (which depicts, yes, a boy holding an apple) to M. Gustave, concierge to the Grand Budapest, her family frames him for her murder. With help from a whole array of weird characters, Gustave escapes from prison and is proven innocent.

It is colorful. It is ridiculous. It is awesome.

And everyone is in it. Everyone. Ralph Fiennes, the aforementioned Tilda Swinton, Adrian Brody (sporting a fantastic hairdo), F. Murray Abraham, Mathieu Amalric, Jude Law, Harvey Keitel, Jeff Goldblum, Saoirse Ronan, Jason Schwartzman, Bill Murray, Edward Norton, Willem Dafoe, Tom Wilkinson, Owen Wilson, Karl Markovics. Also, several cameos.

Then, of course, there is the utterly unknown Tony Revolori, as Gustave's constant companion and protege, who more than holds his own around the onslaught of brilliant actors.

The story may be contrived, complicated and told in fitful, hurried, overloaded dialogue, but this is everything we have come to expect (and love) from Wes Anderson, who has always stuck to his guns. Finally, people seem to get it on a much, much bigger scale.

8/10