On Friday or Saturday or someday night last week I had several friends around to watch films. We would put a film on, then by the time the opening credits were done we’d have thought of a better film and put that on. This went round a few times, but when it came out that one amongst us hadn’t seen The Royal Tenenbaums, the rest of us rejoiced. What better? I can watch it again and again and again, it still amuses me.
Wes Anderson has a delightfully dry sense of humour, and his peculiar characters are wondrous.
Gene Hackman plays the protagonist Royal, estranged father of the Tenenbaum family. The film opens with Royal explaining to his three adolescent children why he is going away. They are childhood geniuses who grow up to much less successful lives.
Several years later, Royal runs out of money, and he determines to go home. He concocts a story that he is dying of stomach cancer, and he wants to reconnect with his children. The beautiful irony of this is he barely means it at the time, but soon does as he says and finds himself loving a family he barely had before.
Anderson’s films tend to have a few common themes – absurd characters, playful and poignant irony, dry unemphasised humour, folk rock and brit pop, and often a heartening end in a way that you wouldn’t have often picked. To any who haven’t seen it, or any Anderson film for that matter (Darjeeling Limited, Rushmore, Fantastic Mr Fox) I would highly recommend a viewing.
Several Wes Anderson characters in here, lovely.
Film Student 