A Scientist at the Movies Reviews by Greg Paris

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Title: The Royal Tenenbaums

Date of original theatrical release: 2001

Details:

Gene Hackman (Royal Tenenbaum)

Anjelica Huston (Etheline Tenenbaum)

Gwyneth Paltrow (Margot Tenenbaum)

Ben Stiller (Chas Tenenbaum)

Luke Wilson (Richie Tenenbaum)

Owen Wilson (Eli Cash)

Danny Glover (Henry Sherman)

Bill Murray (Raleigh St. Clair)

Written & directed by: Wes Anderson

Score: 0

The Review: Another warped, typically Wes Anderson view of the world -- but a very circumscribed part of the world, in this case the offspring of Manhattan lawyer Royal Tenenbaum (Hackman), all of whose children seem to have very good reasons to hate him. The family and its hangers-on (the latter including Glover and Owen Wilson) are not merely odd or bizarre, though they certainly are that: the characters are self-absorbed, indulgent, wacked-out twits -- all of them! The sons and daughter were all youthful prodigies of one ilk or another: from an taste for business in grade-school (Stiller), to a tennis star (Luke Wilson), to an artist and author (Paltrow). And where would be the angst if they all didn't suffer from the psychological scars of their early successes? From the outset, Royal decides to re-establish himself with his family, in part because he's dying (or is he, really?), and in part out of sheet pigheadedness to thwart a suitor for his ex-wife.

Not bad, though, for there are some genuinely strange situations that bring out whatever humanity can be recovered from this fractured family. But caveat observator: Wes Anderson is not to everyone's taste, and his characters may repulse as much as they might amuse.

(9-Apr-06)

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