The Royal Tenenbaums

The Royal Tenenbaums
Sycamore Public Library call number: DVD ROY
This was recommended as part of a blanket suggestion that I watch "any movie that Bill Murray ever did." Of course I'd heard of The Royal Tenenbaums, but I had avoided the movie because I thought I didn't like Ben Stiller. (It turns out that I really don't mind him. Zoolander was pretty good, There's Something About Mary was really funny, and Dodgeball - A True Underdog Story was brilliant.) It was for the best, because it led to me watching this without any preconceived ideas about the content of the film. I had absolutely no idea what it was about.

I was charmed from the very beginning. If you want to know, here are a couple of brief snapshots about the movie. If not, skip to the rest of my review, below the indented bits.

A synopsis:

Royal Tenenbaum (Gene Hackman) and his wife Etheline (Anjelica Huston) had three children - Chas, Margot, and Richie - and then they separated. Chas (Ben Stiller) started buying real estate in his early teens and seemed to have an almost preternatural understanding of international finance. Margot (Gwyneth Paltrow) was a playwright and received a Braverman Grant of $50,000 in the ninth grade. Richie (Luke Wilson) was a junior champion tennis player and won the U.S. Nationals three years in a row. Virtually all memory of the brilliance of the young Tenenbaums was subsequently erased by two decades of betrayal, failure, and disaster. The Criterion Collection is proud to present Wes Anderson's hilarious, touching, and brilliantly stylized study of melancholy and redemption.

and an outside review:

After the brilliance of Rushmore, his levelheaded look at the gifts of a misfit, where could Wes Anderson go next? In the event, he has broadened his scope to take in an entire family of misfits: the Tenenbaums, residing in their colorful town house like kooky modern leftovers from the age of Edith Wharton-an age of innocence indeed, despite the ill will that gusts around. The parents (Gene Hackman and Anjelica Huston) raised three overachieving children (Ben Stiller, Luke Wilson, and Gwyneth Paltrow) and then separated. We are here for the aftermath: the daughter's fading marriage to a bearded melancholic (Bill Murray), and other sunderings and patchings-up. The movie is packed tight with strong, if baffled, feelings, and yet we could be watching it through glass; Anderson specializes in the cool, astringent gaze, and for anyone sick of Hollywood heart-melters, this could be the antidote. With Owen Wilson, who co-wrote the film, and a meticulous Danny Glover.
[Anthony Lane. Copyright © 2006 The New Yorker]

I loved this movie. It is funny and tender, and expresses a great range of emotion without being cloying or overt. I am starting to feel like I "get" Wes Anderson now...I think?...as a writer/director. It's a project worth undertaking. In any case, The Royal Tenenbaums is a wonderful film; a great night's entertainment.

REVIEWED BY: Amy
AGE GROUP: Adult
CLASS: Entertainment/Fiction
MPAA: "Rated R for some language, sexuality/nudity and drug content"

RANK: A

WATCH-ALIKES: If you enjoy The Royal Tenenbaums, then you may also like...

There's Something About Mary [feat. Ben Stiller]
Wedding Crashers [feat. Owen Wilson]
Sliding Doors [feat. Gwyneth Paltrow]
Lost in Translation [feat. Bill Murray]