The Royal Tenenbaums

UK Release Date. 15 March 2002
Certification. 15
Running Time. 1 hour 50 mins
Director. Wes Anderson
Cast. Danny Glover, Gene Hackman, Anjelica Huston, Bill Murray, Gwyneth Paltrow, Ben Stiller, Luke Wilson, Owen Wilson.
Rating. 69%

Review.

I suspect The Royal Tenenbaums was the first Wes Anderson film I encountered. As such, and for me, The Royal Tenenbaums remains the quintessential Wes Anderson film. The distinctive and homogenous colour palette, the rectilinear pans (travelling in straight lines, forwards and backwards), the novelistic chapter headings, and the myriad of intriguing, eccentric and larger-than-life characters - all of the director's cinematic trademarks are on display.

The Tenenbaum clan are a wealthy, intellectual New York family with three children - Chas, Richie and Margot - all child prodigies in their own field. Years later, their estranged father, Royal Tenenbaum returns to the family home to rekindle a relationship with his grown-up children. Gene Hackman appears to take immense pleasure in assuming the role of the cantankerous, but ultimately charming and endearing, Royal Tenenbaum. 

From the ensemble cast, Gwyneth Paltrow steals the show as Margot Tenenbaum. There is a distant, sophisticated manner to her eccentricity, that combined with a monotone, deadpan humour, ensures the character of Margot leaps off the screen.

As with any Wes Anderson film the cinematography is inventive and attractive. Accompanying the appealing visuals, The Royal Tenenbaums also possesses a sublime soundtrack, featuring the likes of The Clash, The Ramones, The Velvet Underground and Bob Dylan - a feature I have not noted in other Wes Anderson films.

And Alec Baldwin's narration is nigh on perfect. With perfectly neutral tones and flat delivery, Baldwin provides commentary without obvious inflection or intonation, that is still somehow overwhelmingly sad.

The film's dialogue is razor-sharp and supports an endearing story of family, redemption and love. A film awash with humanity and hope. A film that contains wonderfully dark humour and crippling sadness in equal measure. A tender film.