As a cross between a thriller, a fairytale and a music video, The Million Dollar Hotel is more than just a film. It is also a social critique about how the American dream drives people insane.
At the film's premiere in Hong Kong, German director Wim Wenders said it was not a sad film because it was seen through the eyes of someone special.
The hotel's host of eccentric and misfit tenants, revelling in unrealistic dreams, seem at odds with its name and former prestige.
The film opens and ends with a poetic suicide scene. Tom Tom (Jeremy Davies) who plummets from the top of the hotel sees through his transcendent eyes beauty in the shabbiness of the building and its occupants.
The dead protagonist takes up the role as narrator. A dead person's point of view is, by coincidence, used in a recent film, American Beauty, where the death also signifies redemption.
The drama unfolds as a tenant Izzy Goldkiss (Tim Roth) falls to his death. He turns out to be the son of a media mogul and draws immediate media attention. FBI investigator Skinner (Mel Gib son) is sent to find out the murderer by the father because he reckons that 'Jews don't commit suicide'.
The hotel guests on Skinner's list of suspects do not co-operate and all seem to have something to hide. They include slow- witted and kind-hearted Tom Tom, also Izzy's best friend, ethereally beautiful prostitute Eloise (Milla Jovovich), mysterious Native American Geronimo (Jimmy Smits) and Dixie, who insists he wrote all of the Beatles' songs.