The Royal Tenenbaums (2001)
For those of you following along at home, this movie made my Top Five Movies List. That's a pretty lofty achievement in itself, & it's criminal that this movie didn't garner any Academy Award nominations for anything if memory serves me correctly. CRIMINAL I say!
The story is very intricate & complicated, but if you follow along in the movie, it doesn't seem that way at all. That just may be because I love Wes Anderson's films, but I truly think this was one of, if not THE best movie of 2001. I said that after I saw it in the theatre. When I was working at the video store I always recommended it to customers & more often than not, they'd tell me I was crazy after watching it. I realize it's not a movie for everyone, mostly because everyone isn't a disciplined movie watcher like myself.
I don't need a paint-by-the-numbers script with explosions & bathroom humour to entertain me. Listen to the delivery of most of Royal Tenenbaum's (Gene Hackman) lines. Dry, concise & to the point. This is a man who is selfish even in the art of conversation. He introduces his adopted daughter as just that. "This is our adopted daughter, Margot."
Margot is played by Gwyneth Paltrow at her monotone best, looking like she doesn't give a damn about anything but smoking. The other Tenenbaum children are played by Ben Stiller (Chas) & Luke Wilson (Richie). All the children were geniuses in one way or another, Chas finanical & Richie through tennis.
Essentially the movie is about Royal hitting rock bottom & crawling back to his family in one of the most dishonest & hurtful ways imaginable. One of the best parts of this movie is that you barely see the actors as themselves. Almost immediately you start seeing Royal as Royal himself, not Gene Hackman playing Royal Tenenbaum. The actors lose themselves in their roles & it's something beautiful to behold.
There are so many quick-cuts in this movie that I've likened it to a live action Simpsons-style movie. If they mention something from the past, there's usually a quick-cut of the actual event to accompany the anecdote, usually narrated by Alec Baldwin in a fantastic story-telling tone. The whole movie feels like a book on purpose, as the first thing we see a library book entitled "The Royal Tenenbaums" being checked out.
This movie is fantastic on so many levels that I could watch it once a week for the rest of my life & still take something new out of it. Everything from Hackman's bastard-approach to playing Royal, to Owen Wilson's mescaline-enhanced portrayal of family friend Eli Cash (who just wants to be a Tenenbaum) is over-the-top awesome. I haven't even touched on the performances of Anjelica Houston (Etheline Tenenbaum, Royal's estranged wife) or Danny Glover (Henry Sherman, Etheline's suitor). & I can't believe I went the entire review without mentioning Bill Murray's glorious performance as Raleigh St. Clair. The actors must really enjoy working for Wes Anderson because a lot of them are coming back for his new movie, "The Aquatic Life" I believe it's called. 5 outta 5 & a Skooch Hall of Fame Movie.