Starring: Gene Hackman, Angelica Huston, Ben Stiller, Gwyneth Paltrow, Bill Murray
Directed by: Wes Anderson

I was waiting for months for this movie to come out. I'd heard about it for a good long while. After seeing the brilliant Rushmore, I was anticipating Wes Anderson's next film. Now it's finally here, and does not disappoint. The Royal Tenenbaums is a great movie, with Hackman delivering a performance to be remembered.

Hackman plays Royal Tenenbaum, a lawyer whose family's exploits was on everyone's lips. His three children were all prodigies in their youth. One was a promising tennis star, the other a playwright and the last a business wunderkind. However, in recent years, Royal has been ousted by the family. The children turned against him. To them, his erratic behaviour is too odd for them, but the viewer can clearly see that Royal is in fact the most normal of them all. Royal goes broke one day (his son got him disbarred), and is kicked out of the hotel he'd been staying at for years. He has nowhere to stay so he returns to his family. They still want nothing to do with him, so he conjures up a lie that he is dying. His wife (from whom he is separated) takes him in, to the dismay of almost everyone. While with his family, he tries to reconnect with his kids. Eventually, the jig is up, and everyone turns on him again. But in the end, Royal gets the last laugh.

The reason I like Wes Anderson's movies so much is that his movies are fresh. With first Rushmore and now The Royal Tenenbaums, Anderson's movies are being noticed for their difference. I find his movies are oddly quiet. Sure, there is a great soundtrack, but most of the scenes are quiet, relying on the fantastic dialogue to carry them, which it does in spades. The quality of Anderson's scripts is so good that it's no wonder major celebs clamour to get in his movies. In this movie alone we have Hackman, Huston, Stiller, Paltrow, Murray, the Wilson brothers (Owen, who co-wrote it, and Luke), Danny Glover and Alec Baldwin.

We need more movies like this. While it is a comedy, the laughs aren't the kind that you'd get in a more conventional comedy. I'd describe this movie as a drama that's funny. But however you want to classify it, it remains a satisfying trip to the movies.

DroopyMcC
Queen