Hotel Splendide (2000) User Reviews

Weird, yes, but not all that bad

[rouzanna · 6/10 · 2 June 2009]

I don't quite share the enthusiasm of the reviewers claiming that the movie is a must-see, but it is not trash either. It's actually a black-humored comedy and rather good for a change. I disagree about wasting 98 minutes of your life, because if you don't find the movie attractive in the first 10 minutes, then stop watching it - it's not your kind of a show. I wouldn't compare it to the Addams Family, one of my all-time favorites, but something in the setting, darkness, characters, and pace makes the two somehow alike. Though, indeed, I, too, would prefer less toilet and bowel movement humor, but it relates to the major part of the plot, the health efficiency theory of the masterful mother-former owner of the hotel who used to run (and seem to still run) it, so not much complaining there.

My opinion - give it a try, chances are that you'll be entertained. But if it doesn't work for you - well, the "Off" button is still on your remote.

No U.S. release?

[wallismcclain · 7/10 · 15 August 2008]

Having seen this film several years ago, I am now somewhat hazy on the details. However, it left an indelible impression and I really want to see it again. The friend with whom I watched it hated it, but I was more positive, being a big fan of Toni Colette and Daniel Craig. The creaky old hotel was perfectly and appropriately disgusting, and cast expertly limned the miserable staff with gusto. The somewhat grotesque scenes in the bowels of the hotel (sorry!) were, as some reviewers have noted, not altogether pleasant, with the hotel's sewage bubbling through ancient pipes, but they were hysterically funny. And as a part of a satire of various misguided schemes to advance loony notions of healthful lifestyles, it works quite well. As Kath, Toni Colette brings a spark of sanity to the hotel and its downtrodden employees, and her attempts to introduce edible food lead to predictable conflicts. This is a role Ms. Colette took on only about six years after her career-making turn as Muriel in "Muriel's Wedding." It marks an interesting phase and perhaps a transitional moment in what is a brilliant career. However, it appears that the film is available on DVD only in a non-U.S. format. Does anyone know why? Are there other options?

great

[fliphop · 30 July 2004]

rbrb is a twit. if you do not understand this movie, then you might not like it. but for those who do, it is excellent. the movie is about this crazy woman (deceased) who is obsessed with obscure 'health' ideas such as no sugar, no alcohol, in fact, nothing that tastes the slightest bit good. she has this hotel and brainwashes her children and all the guests into staying there convincing them that to leave the island meant death from various illnesses and so forth. she convinces them that there is nothing on the outside, that crossing the water will kill them, etc etc etc. the surviving family, especially the son, try to carry on her crazy lifestyle, partly by using recorded sounds of her voice played over a speaker system.

but the hotel hires a new chef, she brings revolution, with her cakes and things that taste good... to the chagrin of the son, and the worry of many of the other residents. but others love her new ways and in fact welcome the revolution. and.. well.. you will just have to see the rest of the movie.

it is a metaphor for anyone who has been in a situation where they were brainwashed into thinking a certain way of life was necessary, that dependence was necessary, etc etc . if you dont understand this then perhaps you should mature past the age of, oh, say, 12, and get out more and understand other peoples experiences, and watch movies besides terminator 3 and independence day.

Dreadful

[tony_carlin · 1/10 · 6 September 2022]

My god where to start with this waste of some fine acting talent, a total mis match of storyline and acting, where scenes just appeared and went with no seeming joining where we were treated for some reason to Stephen Tomkinson having sex with his wife in the middle of a working day, then whatever Daniel Craig thought he was up to I have no idea.

Just a bizarre thing to see, myself and my wife gave it 20 minutes and our eyeballs were hurting so we gave up. Avoid at all costs, whoever made this and who agreed to it being made, should be prosecuted for crimes against humanity.

As I said earlier this is a waste of some fine actors and a waste of resources.

Haunting

[urenxa-1 · 8/10 · 10 June 2005]

Just watched the film and certainly haven't seen anything like it in a long time. Sort of a weird cross between an Ealing comedy and a Gothic horror. Loved the texture and atmosphere but didn't get that engaged with the story, which is is at times comic and at other moments disturbing or just plain strange, though the characters are beautifully drawn and very memorable, especially Stanley, the neurotic virgin, and the sister, Cora.

People seem to either love or hate this one - maybe because it's so different from the run of the mill Brit film. It seems to draw on an earlier period in cinema for its style and references, which I thought was refreshing. At the end I had the feeling that it might have begun as an even darker and stranger story that has had some element or other removed, maybe to make it more accessible. It does have some really haunting images and a great sound effects track. Definitely worth watching, for its atmosphere alone.

That's another fine mess!!

[miseryguts36 · 1/10 · 10 March 2005]

I've with rbrb on this one. 98 minutes of my life I'll never get back. I can, in all honesty, say that this is the worst film I have EVER seen and I've seen Starsky and Hutch (and Morvern Callar)!!

Any pleasant memories I've had of the Edinburgh Film Festival have been eroded by this film, which was so bad I can't shift it from my memory. It's like a recurring nightmare. One word sums it up for me: mess.

There are no redeeming features for this "movie" and use the word movie in it's loosest terms. I suspect that the Tommy Lee-Pam Anderson home video has more cinematic credibility that this piece of nonsense. It angers me just thinking about it. As I recall the Cameo cinema showed this free to Cameo Film Club members and now I know why because you just wouldn't pay to see this out of choice.

Good For the Cure

[dogwater-1 · 8/10 · 5 January 2012]

See if only for the plumbing and the music. I can't think of anything more ghastly than spending time at an English spa treating digestive disorders. This is exactly what I would imagine it would be like. On a remote, rainy and rocky little spit of crab dung sits the Hotel Splendide run by the by the Blanche family who seem to have come there at some better time, maybe before ferry service was cut to once a month. There isn't a plot exactly: its more of a scripted hysteria. Very fine cast with Daniel Craig, Toni Collette, and particularly the late Katrin Cartlidge as a character who has wandered in from Black Narcissus. There is also an unusual performance by Stephen Tompkinson that'a unlike anything you are likely to see anywhere else. The cinematography also owes something to Jack Cardiff and the heyday of the Archers and their use of color. Toby Jones and Peter Vaughan round out, with young Hugh O'Connor, an excellent group of lost bowel obsessives existing mostly on various eel dishes. Try it.

Hotel S**t!

[rbrb · 1/10 · 12 November 2003]

This film is so bad I can hardly believe it. It has no point, no humor and lacks any creativity at all;the movie, so called, sums up what is wrong with the UK and the type of films coming from there. Take a group of talentless actors, a ridiculous script and mix that with a brand of toilet humor concentrating on bowel movements and you will get some idea what this garbage is about. Possibly the ugliest actors I have ever seen in one film. How on earth any one can getting funding for such a load of rubbish, goodness knows. Everything is wrong with the film; the era it is set in....are we in the 1920's....see the gramaphone, or modern day see the hair-styles? Whatever non-entity created this drivel must have a fixation with either his mother, his digestive system...or more likely..... his sanity. Dear of dear: trash unlimited.

Peculiar characters but no story arc

[Multifocus · 1/10 · 24 May 2023]

I do like quirky and unusual films, that is why I am such a fan of Wes Andersen films. This is not it. The story centres of 2 modes of cuisine. We get it. Beyond that the story line is pointless. It is as flat as its ocean skyline. The best thing I can say is that the cinematography is lovely. It makes for a nice slide show. I am also ready to add that some of the characters are peculiar, but they have no story arc. According to IMDB "A chef (Toni Collette) seeks reconciliation with her brother (Daniel Craig) by helping him run a decaying resort and health spa." The main characters are supposed to be brother and sister. However, the tension between them would be more in line with jilted lovers, making this film creepy to watch. Nothing funny there.

A must see, despite the Jeunet/Caro-ripoff

[marcopop · 8/10 · 19 November 2000]

I love this film. It is stunning, visually and aesthetically beautiful, works perfectly as a whole and is perfectly crafted. What negative things could possibly be said about it? Well, the problem is, we've seen it before. In the films of the french duo Jean-Pierre Jeunet & Marc Caro.

Hotel Splendide is, in its essence, a typical Jeunet/Caro-film; you'll find that virtually all the characters and aesthetics are lifted from "Delicatessen" and "The City of Lost Children". A hint of Greenaway perhaps, and a fairly large portion of Britishness... what we end up with is an extraordinary, beautiful, funny and moving film. In itself, the film is fantastic. What brings it down a bit is the fact that you find 90 % of this film in the two films by the French duo (J&C), which suggests that although transformed, the ideas weren't originally the writer/director's own.

However, if we go beyond the surface of the film we find a nicely crafted story and some subtle philosophical symbolism - the characters' inner struggles and their blind faith (that makes them unhealthy and miserable, although believing the opposite) can be seen as a a statement against fanatic religious or political believes, and the repression of individualism and the free mind. It's not profound in any way, but it's there, conscious or not.

The ending is, I'm afraid, exactly what you expect. I wish it wasn't, but apparently that's how it has to be in a film like this. The music is most of the time very annoying because it's obviously synthesizers trying to sound like an orchestra, and it's not very well done. Utterly bad use of an oboe-sound in the lead melody so stale it is laughable, and some tasteless pizzicato-sounds that scream out "cheapness" (and what's with that crash cymbal?). All in all the synths don't blend very well with the warm and very well played live violin that occasionally appears and brightens the day.

Finally, a word on the acting. It is overall superb. Hugh O'Conor's portrait of Stanley Smith is spot-on, intense but never over-acted. Katrin Cartlidge too gives a moving performance, and last but not least, Toni Collette is amazingly spellbinding as lovely Kath.

Well acted, well directed and well done, although not as original as it might seem. A good film, though. See it.

VERY ODD, exquisitely funny!!!

[kurschybee · 9/10 · 13 December 2019]

This is one of the strangest, most bizarre films I've watched - but it was splendid and hilarious!!! Great cast and wonderfully fun - but you need a sense of humor to watch it!!!!

fun, weird, adventure

[ksf-2 · 8/10 · 8 May 2021]

Tale of a resort and health spa, on a remote island off the coast. Lots of time spent talking about the health treatments, the menu, and the heating system... the miserly old patriarch owner, Mrs. Blanche has passed on, and now the family can spruce it all up. If they can only agree on what's to be done. When Kath (Collette), a former employee returns, the cook (daniel craig) refuses to work with her. Stanley (Hugh O'Conor, the irish one!) is the nightly entertainment, and is watching the wacky goings on. He wants to leave, but is scared of crossing the water. So he stays. This zany film was one of Craig's quirky ones, before he started playing James Bond. Collette has done so many of these fun, indie films, she seems to really excel in this category. It's a ton of fun. Even when bad stuff happens, it's light and fluffy and fun. I'll definitely watch this one again. Directed by Terence Gross. Story by Marie Redonnet, french author.

Intensely strange, oddly engaging

[oldgirl · 8/10 · 9 September 2020]

What an odd movie to pop up on my list of recommendation on Prime. The cast is excellent (I'll watch anything with Daniel Craig), but the ensemble is amazing. The precis presented by Prime is incorrect -- the young woman returning to the monstrosity that is the Hotel Splendide is the former lover, not the sister, of the chef, and this change turned what I thought might be a quirky comedy into a rather dark but still lively exploration of what happens when the dead refuse to die. The atmosphere of this film is somewhere between Grand Budapest Hotel and Amalie -- I definitely feel the shades of Jeunot and Caro flitting about -- but the revolution which occurs is quintessentially British -- low key, strange, and ultimately enlightening.

Totally off the map!

[tamsincoors · 10/10 · 30 June 2006]

I'd never even heard of this movie. A friend of mine got the DVD in Australia - though the film is definitely Brit. Story is about this hotel on an island somewhere. Not sure if it actually exists or not. Has this totally Gothic weird feel, and it looks real - not like digital effects.

It's about a kind of war between two cooks who end up falling in love with each other, but also about this bunch of incredibly (psychologically)damaged people who have all come here to get better and are really getting worse and worse. It feels like a real place but also completely other worldly. I watched it twice and can't stop thinking about it. The best part of this movie isn't so much what happens - though I really liked the story - it's the feeling it gives you. It just isn't like anything else I've ever seen.

Closest movie that it reminds me of is Harold and Maude - though this is a lot more extreme. I think the main character is the new James Bond!

Don't miss this weird movie

[angeloanti · 10/10 · 18 August 2006]

Watched this on DVD. Never even heard of it until now. I always loved those weird British movies from the sixties and seventies which seem to have disappeared as a genre - until Hotel Splendide. It's astonishing, like a whole world that just appeared out of nowhere. It's a story about how families destroy each other and how you have to break away from your childish attitudes and dependency to be free. But, mostly it's just this completely charming and unpredictable look at a place and a group of people who seem completely real, but couldn't possibly exist.

The movie it most reminded me of was Harold and Maude, though the story and characters are completely unrelated. Just something about the atmosphere and the humour.

Can't stop thinking about it. A must see

Splendidly, sordidly, spectacular...

[montyaj · 10/10 · 30 October 2003]

A brilliant feature debut by Terry Gross - a monstrous main course to follow his deliciously gross entree "The Sin Eater." Mr. Gross's twin leitmotifs - food and sex - are wonderfully combined in this outrageous exercise in romantic, tragi-comic, grande guignol... It's pointless to try to precis the plot or to attempt to outline the characters, you have to see the picture. YOU HAVE TO SEE THE PICTURE!

For those who love the quirky & unusual

[tabby-75338 · 10/10 · 11 November 2021]

Love British humor! I found this thru my Roku on Tubi. Great, young Daniel Craig & Toni Collete, + Toby Jones plus other memorable actors. If you just like cookie cutter movies, watch Hallmark!

Bowels of laughter

[fender-32191 · 10/10 · 29 March 2022]

The hotels plays recordings of the deceased owner to guests at a spa, ofo the health benefits of a bland diet and the cure through regular colonic irrigation. The evils of fried food and spices, only boiled or blanched food on menu, the staf play a board game called squitters (pun) watch the scene it's a howler if you get the gist of the film, one line from daniel craig is mothers been taking advantage of the guests from both ends!

The heating system is converted from guests sewage, it's almost like a monty python film or jabberwocky.