Year: 2001
Director: Wes Anderson
Country: US
Language: English
Eccentricity often masks deep loneliness. In no film is that more true than Wes Anderson's The Royal Tenenbaums. Each family member seems to have had a successful career, at least in their youth, but have become an island unto themselves. Each member writhes in emotional, and sometimes physical pain, but are able to deceive with an excellent poker face. The picture is a serious melodrama masquerading as a lighthearted comedy. Despite the family members being upper class and having careers drastically different than the common man, Anderson is triumphant in allowing us to see ourselves in a particular character and sympathize with them.
Three grown prodigies (Ben Stiller, Gwenyth Paltrow and Luke Wilson), all with a unique genius of some kind, and their mother (Anjelica Huston) are staying at the family household. Their father, Royal (Gene Hackman) had left them long ago, and comes back to make things right with his family.
One of the film's great strengths is allowing the audience to debate the legitimacy of what is being told. Often characters say one thing ("I'm fine") but mean another and nobody is what they initially seem to be (Margot has been an avid smoker since her early teens). Royal gets bounced out of the latest hotel and claims that he has cancer. His family doesn't care, but Royal can be a desperate con artist and is allowed to stay. We wonder why the family could be so cruel to Royal, but after getting to know the character we can see why.
Each character is tragic, yet the film has glimpses of hope and humor. It’s about a strange kind of longing: to “restore” a family that was never that happy in the first place. Anderson is tackling a difficult, sad, and familiar dynamic here: a loving but fundamentally inattentive matriarch, a long-gone father and their alienated children. They've built themselves an identity to free themselves from their family but feel forever bound to it.
Decades from now, Royal Tenenbaums will be considered an American classic. It speaks to the heart and the mind while never losing relevance. Unless the dysfunctional family becomes extinct and we find a miracle cure for depression, Anderson's themes will continue to ring true for almost every human being. I've seen the film many times and each time I am impressed. Praise it! 5/5
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