The Royal Tenenbaums

Wes Anderson, USA, 2001, 109 minutes

A downbeat comic gem from indie director Wes Anderson (Life Aquatic, Rushmore) centred on a dysfunctional family of eccentric geniuses called the Tenenbaums, who are aptly played by a star studded cast of Hollywood misfits. A disgruntled Gene Hackman puts in a Golden Globe winning performance as Royal, the family's estranged patriarch, who manages to orchestrate a family reunion under the pretence that he is dying of cancer, and his unexpected reappearance acts as a catalyst for one of the most bizarre chemical reactions in recent cinema.

The family home has now become a retreat from the world and failed careers of the various neurotic family members, who, much to our delight, proceed to drive one another mad throughout the course of the film. Skeletons tumble out of closets, egos are clashed like fighting stags and several hospitalisations ensue. Meanwhile Bill Murray, perfecting the deadpan acting style that has now become his trademark post Lost in Translation, appears as a depressed psychologist observing the chaos from the sidelines.

Anderson's deliberately stilted direction and formal cutting gives the film an obsessive atmosphere that perfectly compliments the film's subject; the oddball family who seem determinedly cut off from reality, as though we are watching them through the glass of a fish tank.

Review by Dean Bowman
Written for EUFS Programme Spring 2006

And you thought you didn't get along with your parents?

Royal (Gene Hackman) and Etheline Tenenbaum (Anjelica Huston) have raised a family of geniuses. But child prodigies don't last for long and after two decades of betrayal, failure and disaster, virtually all memory of the brilliance of the young Tenenbaums was has been erased. After twenty years absence, Royal, a bad husband and father in the past, returns home to a mixed reception.

At the same time, all their children are returning home, Chas (Ben Stiller) who, after the death of his wife, has lived in constant fear of unexpected catastrophes, and drags his two sons to his parental home. Margot (Gwyneth Paltrow) is scarred by Royal's neglectful treatment during childhood, and tries to suppress nymphomania and thoughts of her unsuccessful career as a playwright by smoking in the bathroom. Richie (Luke Wilson) decides to move into a tent he has set up in his former room, trying to forget his failed tennis career and love of his (adopted) sister Margot.

Of course there are many more supporting characters, like Pagoda the knife-wielding faithful servant; Eli (Owen Wilson) the neighbour boy who writes trashy Western novels; Raleigh, Margot's neurologist husband (Bill Murray)... Each of the characters, even those background characters are lovingly depicted, each has their own distinguishable style - discernable with their room decoration, their style of clothing, their habits. The entire cast is phenomenal, especially Gene Hackman as the desperate patriarch and Paltrow as the depressed Margot.

Watch it and see - your family are stable after all.

Review by Sarah Stark
Written for EUFS Programme Autumn 2002