My wife and I went to see The Grand Budapest Hotel  because it’s the first somewhat intriguing mainstream movie of the year (unless you’re really into Legos) and we’re feeling a little desperate, what with the crappy Oscar winners and nominees clogging all the New York theaters for three straight months now. Every show of Budapest Hotel at the Union Square 14 on a Tuesday night was sold out – obviously everyone else in New York is feeling desperate too.

I am not a huge fan of Wes Anderson, although I did really like Moonrise Kingdom. The Grand Budapest Hotel did not live up to that particular memory, for me falling closer to the muted impact of Anderson’s The Darjeeling Limited, though I did like Budapest Hotel a good bit more. It’s basically cute and enjoyable, but is also more than a tad slow, has a few too many moving parts, too few interesting characters, too few laughs, and a story that ultimately proves a little tiresome. Anderson again creates a magnificent set piece for his characters to romp around in, a decaying old world setting that’s half way between cartoonish and romantic, and this fun visual world was the aspect of the movie my wife and I enjoyed the most. Anderson has as usual found roles for every famous actor you can think of, but frankly most of these actors seem very under-utilized. I should also warn you that Anderson kind of went a little “Coen Brothers” in this film, including several instances of tarted-up, gratuitous violence which I think only hurt the film by distracting from it’s otherwise gentle, good-natured humor. The film has a good score, but not good enough to cover, or even partly cover, any of the film’s problems.

If you are a Wes Anderson fan, I’m pretty sure Budapest Hotel will not completely disappoint you, based on my inference about the nature of Anderson’s appeal to his audience. If on the other hand you are someone who’s simply overjoyed to see something in theaters besides Gravity, Philomena, Her, 12 Years a Slave, and a bunch of ungodly shit that will melt your brain inside an hour, don’t expect too much more from Budapest Hotel beyond light diversion.