Review of The Royal Tenenbaums (2001) by Jason D — 25 Apr 2017

More than 15 years ago I distinctly remember how my wife and I went to the theater after seeing a trailer that made us think The Royal Tenenbaums was going to be a great laugh-out-loud trip to the movies. Needless to say we were a little surprised and frustrated with what we saw (I wanted to get up and leave.) But it's years down the road, I'm more knowledgeable about movies now, and my tastes have broadened. Plus I've seen some other Wes Anderson movies, and I get him now, and understand what to expect out of his stuff.

The problem...I'm wrong, I don't get Wes Anderson at all. His humor continues to be flat for me. His style, while meticulously detailed in every single visual, does nothing for me. His movies feel like they are capturing the lives of an alien race that has tried to emulate life on Earth but they still haven't quite mastered human behavior yet. Most of the performances are emotionless and expressionless, so it's dreadfully hard to care about anyone in the film. But I never know, with Wes Anderson's films, if he's aiming to impact me in any kind of emotional way or if he just wants to show me a pretty picture.

Every once in awhile one of the better actors in The Royal Tenenbaums (like Gene Hackman or Bill Murray) will slide some acting past Anderson's sterilization and I get my hopes up..."maybe we'll have a real scene here!" But hopes are quickly dashed when the camera flips back to Gwyneth Paltrow or a Wilson. There was a point about 30 minutes into the movie when I began clock-watching. The movie is not painful to watch, I just lack any investment in the characters or their story, so I get bored. It looked good, but beauty is only skin deep, and beneath that beautiful facade is a whole bunch of bland.