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THE ROYAL TENENBAUMS Send This Review to a Friend
There are no thrones in "The Royal Tenenbaums." Royal is the name of the one-time head of the oddball New York family, but as a lawyer who screwed up his life, he is now trying to make amends and win over his wife and children. Since Royal is played by Gene Hackman, you know you are in for a solid, entertaining performance, easily among his best. Hackman, in an acting turn that veers between comedy and desperation, is both amusing and sympathetic and has some of the best lines in this quirky film directed by Wes Anderson, who co-wrote it with Owen Wilson. The action is brightened by some whimsically scripted narration by Alec Baldwin.
The film gets off to a nutty start when we meet the Tenenbaum children as young geniuses, who quickly become their grown-up counterparts. Ben Stiller is Chas, an early financial whiz, Gwyneth Paltrow is Margot, who has been adopted and won a $50,000 playwright grant in the ninth grade, and Luke Wilson is Richie, once a promising tennis champ. All have various degrees of problems, especially Margot, who is married to a neurologist (Bill Murray), and has a secret lover. He's Richie's long-time friend Eli (Owen Wilson). Instead of the family's early days of promise, the Tenenbaums have become hilariously dysfunctional.
Royal doesn't find the would-be reunion easy. For one thing Anjelica Huston as his wife Etheline is angry with him and doesn't believe his protestations. Worse, she has a new suitor, played by Danny Glover. But Royal is nothing if not resourceful. The filmmakers are resourceful too, although perhaps not resourceful enough.
The level of comedy is erratic, on occasion brilliant and at other times a miss. But in general the film has the advantage of originality and not pulling punches on its satirical take of this collection of Tenenbaums who might make other dysfunctional families seem almost normal. A family reunion keeps the plot spinning and the maneuvers in motion as decision time nears. Andserson's latest--he also directed "Rushmore"--is a film enjoyable enough to see no matter what you wind up thinking about it. A Touchstone Pictures release.
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