The Royal Tenenbaums [MA]

Royal Tenenbaum and his wife, Etherline, had three children: Chas, Ritchie, and Margot. They were a family of geniuses: Chas was inventing new breeds of mice and had a mind for money and property, Ritchie was a competitive tennis player turned pro, and Margot was a playwright, all when there were around ten. But then, the family separated and they have not spoken to one another for almost twenty years. Now, Royal wishes to reconnect with his family, so he feigns terminal illness so that he might come and stay at the old house, where all three of the Tenenbaum children find themselves through one event or another. 

Before regaling audiences with the attempted reconnection of three brothers in The Darjeeling Limited, Wes Anderson lit up the screen with the timelessly quirky and family-oriented jewel that is The Royal Tenenbaums. Another offbeat and jaggedly put together comedy, this movie is just great: founded on subtle character humour with a great cast to back it up. 

Royal Tenenbaum and his wife, Etherline, had three children: Chas, Ritchie, and Margot. They were a family of geniuses: Chas was inventing new breeds of mice and had a mind for money and property, Ritchie was a competitive tennis player turned pro, and Margot was a playwright, all when there were around ten. But then, the family separated and they have not spoken to one another for almost twenty years. Now, Royal wishes to reconnect with his family, so he feigns terminal illness so that he might come and stay at the old house, where all three of the Tenenbaum children find themselves through one event or another. 

What makes this film so entertaining and very funny is its simplicity and that fact that everything is done in a way so that the audience cannot read what is actually going on. Separated into storybook chapters to break up the film’s flow, which would have gotten to be dreary and droning, the story and its characters are ones that deliberately lack expression, thereby causing the audience to laugh at the sheer placidity and neutrality of everything, even when it concerns topics of significant seriousness. The whole thing is wonderfully neutral and sometimes even blank, but it works perfectly because it makes you laugh at the characters, not with them. Seriously, given the circumstances surrounding them, these characters are wholly memorable: if they were any calmer, they would be in a coma. It’s actually rather hilarious, despite the fact that it can get rather dark and complicated. 

Starring Gene Hackman, Angelica Houston, Ben Stiller, Gwenyth Paltrow, Luke Wilson, Danny Glover, Owen Wilson, and Bill Murray, The Royal Tenenbaums is a wonderfully original and delightfully offbeat comedy that’s filled with second chances, clever writing, dramatic familial scenarios, attempts of all sorts, and forgiveness. It’s really rather great and I thoroughly enjoyed it.