Walking into a preview of The Grand Budapest Hotel, a colleague wondered aloud if this was the film in which Wes Anderson would overcome his penchant for sym­metry. In fact, The Grand Budapest Hotel must be the most maddeningly symmetrical movie ever produced! Frames are composed with a neatness and correctness that feels obsessive-compulsive.

The good news is that it’s sheer pleasure from start to finish. Anderson is a director who drives some viewers mad with his eccentricities but I’ve been seduced from the day I saw his debut feature, Bottle Rocket (1996). In the movies that followed, Anderson has grown increasingly ambitious, exhibiting all the trademarks of a highly distinctive auteur.