Review of The Royal Tenenbaums (2001) by Harold S — 16 Jan 2015

With Wes Anderson directing and Gene Hackman in a Golden Globe Award winning role, The Royal Tennenbaums sounded like a stylish feature.

The general style that Wes Anderson uses to approach The Royal Tennenbaums seems very similar to the one he used on his 2014 multiple Academy Award nominated film The Grand Budapest Hotel, only with less absurdity this time around. The story is a lot more down to earth although without an absence of darker themes. Although I didn't find the film to be perfect, The Royal Tennenbaums is clearly a step in the right direction for Wes Anderson. But the story just didn't end up doing the job for me. It may have been eccentric and stylish at the time of its release in 2002, but considering how far Wes Anderson has come since The Royal Tennenbaums the film seems largely like an experimental feature and a good one too, but I didn't exactly feel like it ended up doing the job for me.

There are so many characters in The Royal Tennenbaums who all have their own stories to tell. Because of that, the film unfolds in the manner of many subplots occuring one after the other. Since all of them have their own absurdist nature, it makes the somewhat scattered narrative structure even more difficult to swallow. I've been able to embrace Wes Anderson films before, but it's difficult to tell where he wants the absurdity to lie in The Royal Tennenbaums because the subject matter is grim yet the film is light in nature and therefore fails to have any really effective dramatic moments. There are times where it could have done so, but I felt like it failed to follow up on them. The large collection of characters in The Royal Tennenbaums resulted in an inconsistent rate of success with me because I was intrigued by some of them while not so much interested in others. And since they all measured up with fairly equal amounts of screen time aside from the protagonist Royal Tennenbaum, the structure of the film is equal even though the general sense of entertainment value can be hit and miss. For me, there was more misses than hits because the limited capabilities of the story failed match up to the style of the film yet I was already very familiar with that style through Wes Anderson's later works. There may be nostalgia in The Royal Tennenbaums, but his sense of style cannot overcome the inconsistent storytelling success in the film even if there is a general sense of charm going on in the film.

While the stories in The Royal Tennenbaums may not be structured perfectly, the screenplay in the feature is rich with strong dialogue and some intriguing characters to boot. This gives the film some sense of value beneath its style, but the fact is that The Royal Tennenbaums will always stand out more for its absurdist nature and the way that it is depicted. With stylish cinematography, Wes Anderson gives The Royal Tennenbaums a really eccentric feel to it. With quick but gentle editing of the many strange situations and variety of beautiful scenery in the film as well as a nice soundtrack , The Royal Tennenbaums reveals itself as an effective treat on the eyes and the ears without deviating too far from being somewhat realistic even if the story is of a very absurd nature.

The atmosphere in the film felt rather strange in a way. At times there was a lighthearted sense of joy which covered the main feel of the film while at many other moments there was a sense of drama which didn't exactly work too well with the absurdist themes because on a certain level they just clashed and left things feeling somewhat strange. I liked some parts of the themes in The Royal Tennenbaums but the tone felt inconsistent to me, never exactly resting on being light or dark and therefore not maximising the comic potential of it all. Like The Royal Tennenbaums, I never really knew how to feel.

Still, the one thing that is undeniably an asset in The Royal Tennenbaums is the ensemble cast.

Gene Hackman's performance is a really great change of pace for the actor. The Two Time Academy Award winning legend delivers such an offbeat and eccentric role in The Royal Tennenbaums where he restricts himself mainly to how he delivers his lines instead of his physical actions, and in a role much different to his legendary dramatic efforts, Gene Hackman delivers a touching and simple yet charismatic performance as Royal Tennenbaum. He makes a likable figure out of his character even if some of his approaches to situations are not precisely the most healthy. He always has a likable demeanour to him and his interactions with all the other cast members create strong chemistry. Gene Hackman's leading performance in The Royal Tennenbaums is his final great performance and one of his most gentle and restrained, and he manages to grasp Wes Anderson's distinctive tone and intergrate it into his character which reveals that he is the ideal lead actor to be working with the director.

While none of the other cast members stand out like Gene Hackman, the supporting cast remain a talented bunch.

Ben Stiller's energy easily matches the mood of the film, and the same goes for Owen Wilson and Bill Murray who is always a welcomn presence in a Wes Anderson feature. Danny Glover is good to see active, Anjelica Huston is strong in conveying her introverted nature and Gwyneth Paltrow follows in her footsteps with a rather dark nature to her and a strong chemsitry with Luke Wilson.

So The Royal Tennenbaums shows the strongly stylish nature of Wes Anderson's directorial style and the cast are all on board with him without problem, but the scattered story and surplus of characters makes it a challenge to keep up with and the overall development doesn't feel great.