Now
known for Fantastic Mr Fox and The Grand Budapest Hotel, Wes Anderson
came to the world’s attention with Rushmore
in 1998, before The Royal Tenenbaums
put him on the map three years later. His detached, nostalgic sensibility and
skewed humour places him in the same arena as the Coen Brothers, and The Royal Tenenbaums is a tragic comedy
in the vein of J.D. Salinger’s post-Catcher
in the Rye Glass family stories; indeed the film takes the form of a
visualised novel, with on-screen chapter titles and plot descriptions, and a
third person narration by Alec Baldwin. It is a qualified achievement,
distinctive and original but also distancing and lacking in warmth, less
successful maybe than the ostensibly similar The World According to Garp.
Following the fluctuating
fortunes of the Tenenbaum family, the film centres around their huge townhouse
in what might be the 1950s but is actually contemporary New York. The
six-minute prologue dispenses with the departure of the Tenenbaums’ father in
non-chronological order, first presenting us with Royal (Hackman)’s expulsion
then introducing us to his three over-achieving offspring one by one. Firstly
there is Chas (Stiller, once grown up), a business prodigy, and then the
adopted Margot (Paltrow), already a successful playwright before she hits her
teens. Then there is Richie (Luke Wilson as an adult), an adolescent tennis
sensation. Their mother is Ethel (Huston), as distracted a presence as the
father she throws out.
Twenty-two years later Royal
Tenenbaum finds himself homeless and pretending to have cancer, in order to
wheedle his way back into the home of his empty, directionless adult children. Thus
begins what passes for a plot, as the Tenenbaums start the process of learning
what are the important things in life, having been raised to appreciate only
success as its own measure.
Anderson’s films are filled
with an incredible amount of affectation, and this is no different. Everything,
from the performances to the artfully conceived plot diversions, sings of artifice
and pretension. Yet somehow, this absolutely works, finding a unique balance
between stillness and freneticism and managing to persuade us of the humanity
of its over-caricatured characters. From Danny Glover as Etheline’s suitor to
Anderson favourite Bill Murray as Margot’s husband, there is a richness and
diversity among the supporting cast that Anderson convinces us are real. He
even casts the Wilson brothers as friends despite there being roles for them as
siblings, in the ultimate artificiality.
It’s a brilliant but perhaps
meaningless endeavour, its points too blunt or too cryptic to fully involve.
Nevertheless it’s a dazzling experience and one that pretends towards an
emotional engagement that never quite materialises, and in this Criterion Blu-ray
edition receives its most comprehensive possible release.
Extras: Director’s commentary, With the Filmmaker portrait, interviews, behind
the scenes, outtakes, The Peter Bradley Show, trailers and more
THE ROYAL TENENBAUMS
/ CERT: 15 / DIRECTOR: WES ANDERSON / SCREENPLAY: WES ANDERSON, OWEN WILSON /
STARRING: GENE HACKMAN, ANJELICA HUSTON, BEN STILLER, GWYNETH PALTROW, LUKE
WILSON / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW
