I need to see this again on Blu-Ray. I initially stumbled over the (first) framing device: two different narrators played by two different actors each. Ostensibly the Jude Law/Tom Wilkinson character is an homage to Stefan Zweig, but I don't think it adds enough to the film to overcome the resulting distancing.
And yet I was more fascinated by the grimy post-socialist 1968 scenes than the confectionery 1932 visuals. The latter were a straightforward extrapolation of "what would Anderson do with a hyper-romanticized intra-war European hotel?", whereas the former was entirely new territory for Anderson.