Overall Rating
  Awesome: 57.97%
Worth A Look: 22.71%
Average: 6.76%
Pretty Bad: 2.9%
Total Crap: 9.66%
14 reviews, 123 user ratings
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| Royal Tenenbaums, The |
by Brian McKay
"Wes Anderson wins the Trifecta"
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The man who brought us "Bottle Rocket" and "Rushmore" is up to more of the same lovely nuttiness with "The Royal Tenenbaums". Anyone who didn't like either of those previous films need not apply, because while TRT is more polished than either of those films, it's also much more eccentric.Even if you don't know the name "Wes Anderson", His directorial stink from "Rushmore" certainly permeates this film, and is even kicked up a notch or two. TRT is the story of an overachieving and dysfunctional family, the Tenenbaums, of which Royal is the non-supportive patriarch and womanizing husband (Gene Hackman in an oscar-caliber performance). Etheline Tanenbaum (Angelica Houston) is the embittered ex-wife who is left to raise the three children. Each is a child prodigy who has since grown up and fallen on hard times, and each has major issues that trace back to Royal's condescending attitude and later abandonment after Etheline kicks him out. As adults, each one harbors a particular nueroses.
Chas (Ben Stiller) is obsessively overprotective of his two boys after losing his wife in a plane crash. Margot (Gwyneth Paltrow), a formerly "brilliant" playwright, now has writer's block, engages in a lot of experimental sex, and hides her smoking habit from everyone. Richie (Luke Wilson), a former tennis star, suffers a meltdown upon realizing that he is in love with Margot (his adopted sister), who has just married a psychologist (Bill Murray). Under one pretext or another, each of them ends up returning to the family home to stay for a while. Meanwhile, Eli Cash (Owen Wilson), Richie's childhood friend from across the street, also returns. Now a semi-prominent writer, he does a lot of coke and gets it on with Margot behind Richie's back.
As if things in the house weren't insane enough, Royal comes back to stay after being MIA for the past 7 years. He uses the excuse that he is dying of cancer and wants to reconcile with the family that he has wronged, although the truth is that he is broke and has been booted from the hotel where he was staying. Royal takes the opportunity to try and meddle in his kids' lives, while also trying to win Etheline away from her new suitor, Henry Sherman (Danny Glover).
Though the film certainly takes its time building up to the laughter, it pays off handsomely. Unlike most comedies of the day, this one doesn't go for the quick or cheap laugh. It takes its time, putting on layers and layers of quirks and idiosyncracies, sucking you into the the bizarre little world of the Tanenbaum home and then making you laugh when it's good and ready to.
Wes Anderson's script and direction are nearly impeccable here, and the entire cast pulls it off superbly. Like one of the Tanenbaums themselves, the Tanenbaum house is just as much a character, with it's own strange personality that harbors an interesting assortment of rooms, niches, passageways, and cubbyholes. One of my favorites was the "game closet", a closet whose shelves are full of old board games from floor to cieling, where a few of the characters go for clandestine conversations.Despite its occasionally dark and heavy themes, TRT is foremost a comedy. While Anderson is obviously growing as both a writer and director, he stays true to his style of filmmaking, which is almost a genre unto itself. It would certainly be a dis if this didn't get at least a few nods come Oscar time.
link directly to this review at http://www.efilmcritic.com/review.php?movie=5670&reviewer=258
originally posted: 01/01/02 10:09:45
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USA
14-Dec-2001 (R)
UK
N/A
Australia
14-Mar-2002
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