Rating of
3.5/4
The Royal Tenenbaums review
alec96 - wrote on 10/07/11
Director Wes Anderson and his longtime writing partner and friend Owen Wilson follow up Bottle Rocket, and Rushmore with this offbeat comedy about a dysfunctional family reunion. The Royal Tenenbaums is very similar to Anderson's previous two movies. The only difference is that he does everything he had accomplished in his two other movies even better in this one. The Royal Tenenbaums is Wes Anderson best movie.
Royal Tenenbaum (Gene Hackman) was an extremely successful attorney who had three children with his wife Etheline (Anjelica Huston), she is an archaeologist. Each of the Tenenbaum kids was pretty much a genius: Chas (Ben Stiller) made a killing as a child investor. Richie (Luke Wilson) was a junior tennis champ and a three time U.S. Nationals winner. The adopted Margot (Gwyneth Paltrow) was a playwright who won a 50,000 dollar Braverman Grant in the ninth grade. When Royal abruptly left his family however, it was the beginning of two decades of betrayal and epic failure that would scar the Tenenbaums for the rest of there life's. Their past loathing are bitterly held against Royal when he suddenly reappears, claiming to have six weeks to live. He strongly desire's to reconnect with his now broken family. Typically Royal's story is a sham, but his presence and sincere desire for absolution soon have a very strong effect on the Tenenbaums, who are each dealing with thwarted desires and relationships. Among them are Richie's lifelong love for Margot, who's unhappily married to Raleigh St. Clair (Bill Murray). There is also Etheline's eccentric engagement to Henry Sherman (Danny Glover), he wishes to marry her. One other character is Eli Cash (Owen Wilson), he lived across the street from the Tenenbaum's and became like part of the family. Eli writes very successful western books that get very bad reviews.
This movie didn't look like much to me. I went in with very low expectations, I was surprised by how good it actually turned out to be. Like I said, this is an offbeat comedy. Anderson specializes in that type of movies. The movie is just brilliant, at the center of this movie we get a character study. The character study is well executed, and excellently thought out. Every single character is developed extremely well, and it's shown in a very clever way. The movie begins on a high note. It starts with an introduction of all of the characters, this was a major highlight of the movie. I also enjoy how the movie is divided into chapters. It gives everything a nice touch, they structure it kind of like a book. Alec Baldwin does the narration, they could not have picked a better actor for this job. Just like in other Anderson movies, there is a very large attention to detail, even though the main attention is being focused on the characters. The costume design and art direction is specific throughout. A good example is the house they all live in. The house could have been a character all on it's own, there are tons of pictures everywhere, and specific character identifying settings. Now for the cast.
Luke Wilson shines brilliantly here by giving one of his best performances. Luke Wilson plays a dark character, and he just plays him to perfection. Gwyneth Paltrow was good too, her character was very mysterious. I do believe this is Ben Stiller's finest preference as well. Stiller is a little out of his comfort zone, here he plays a more serious role rather than his comedic roles. The standout performance though is from Gene Hackman. Hackman is just simply fantastic. Anjelica Houston, Owen Wilson, Danny Glover, and Bill Murray also turn in some strong supporting performances as well. This movie has so many great actors, and they all pull there own weight. Everyone is great., I have one minor complaint though. I do wish we got a little more of Bill Murray.
This is a Wes Anderson movie, so you know you are going to get an amazing soundtrack. The score mixes Classic Rock/Pop with Mark Mothersbaugh's quirky score. It just works really well. This movie is not your average silly comedy. The movie can be extremely funny at times, but it can also get very serious at times. The Royal Tenenbaums is a very intelligent black comedy that is artfully made.
