My friend Alison and I have a list of movies that we've decided it is imperative to our cultural education to watch (hey, correct grammar is so five minutes ago). Naturally, Monsieur Wes Anderson, quirky nerd extraordinaire, is at the top of our list. I've actually never seen any Wes Anderson films until now (shameful, I know) besides Hotel Chevalier because it was free on iTunes. But Alison knows me well, and Royal Tenenbaums was everything I wanted out of a dysfunctional family drama/comedy and then some.
First of all, the general dynamics of the cast and the quality of the actors were absolutely perfect. Anjelica Huston is fantastic as the frazzled mother, Gene Hackman as the conniving father who wants another chance with his family, and (my personal favorite) Gwyneth Paltrow as the depressive writer/daughter, Margot. Although I'm too lazy to link all of the other actors, notable stars include Luke Wilson, Ben Stiller (whom I normally hate but found strangely adorable and thoroughly humanized here), Owen Wilson, Bill Murray, and Danny Glover. My favorite cameo is the kid who is Bill Murray's sidekick, whom you might recognize as the kid who played Harris in the beloved TV show Freaks N Geeks.
See, look! It's Harris!
But I digress.
I'm still not quite sure how to write a movie review without sounding like I'm writing a book report in fifth grade, but Royal Tenenbaums captured my heart and made me laugh. The colors were incredible, the cinematography crisp and clean, and the denouement pretty much perfect in the most messed-up way possible. I am a relatively unsentimental person, so the fact that this movie had a constant undercurrent of wry humor and deliberately stayed away from most family clichés definitely attracted me to it.
To sum up and pull myself out of the muck of pretentious film criticism, Royal Tenenbaums is charming without being sappy, insane without being unintelligible, and bittersweet without being maudlin.
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