Grand Hotel

Starring: Greta Garbo, John Barrymore, Joan Crawford, Lionel Barrymore, Wallace Beery
Directed by: Edmund Goulding
Rating: Not rated
Genre: Drama, Romance
1932

Times Seen:
Tim: 1

Summary: The lives of several people all connect during a few days at the Grand Hotel.

Review:

Tim: I am surprised I did not like this movie more. The film sells itself on the large, ensemble cast of big-name stars. This felt to me more of a gimmick than anything else. I felt like the movie was too scattered, never telling a single powerful story in its multitude of stories. It was too slow in too many places, not giving me a captivating reason to care or to pay attention. This film won the Academy Award for Best Picture, but I don't think it is a very good movie.

As I mentioned, the film's selling point was the cast, but I was a bit disappointed. It is not so much that the actors didn't give good performance, but I just expected more from a film so willing to showcase its star talent. Greta Garbo gets the top billing, although her part was smaller than others. I thought she was fine, but overacted a bit. I wish she would have toned down some of her scenes. I had a hard time believing her at various points in the film. John Barrymore is actually quite excellent. I enjoyed his performance very much. I really liked him in this film. Lionel Barrymore definitely had some brilliant moments, but he has some lackluster ones as well. On the whole, though, I liked him. I want to make special mention of Joan Crawford- she is outstanding in the movie. Her role requires her to be serious, dramatic, funny, charming, and likeable all at the same time. She pulls this off wonderfully. I thoroughly enjoyed her performance and I think she overshadows Garbo a bit with her role. She was the bright spot in the cast (although John Barrymore is a close second).

The biggest problem I had with this movie is that I couldn't get myself to be more than marginally interested in any of the characters or their stories. We have an aging dancer, a desperate cat burglar, a dying man seeking happiness, and a whole host of other characters, problems, hopes, and dreams. The problem is that although the stories might have a few moments of intrigue and excitement, none of them give us the emotional payoff we expected. The film ends in a somewhat silly fashion, which I found strangely unsatisfying. I did like the movie's most memorable line- "Grand Hotel... People come, people go. Nothing ever happens." The sad truth of this is that although somewhat untrue, it also holds more truth than it realizes. I wish a little more happened in this movie.

Rating 1-10
Tim's Rating- 6.5



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