Director: Wes
Anderson | Starring:
Gene Hackman, Anjelica Huston, Ben Stiller,
Gwyneth Paltrow, Luke Wilson, Owen Wilson, Danny Glover, Bill Murray
Released: 2001
| Runtime: 109m
| Rating (out of 5):
****½ |
|
I'm a sucker for Wes
Anderson. I love quirky movies filled with bizarre, angst ridden people.
Owen Wilson makes me laugh just looking at his crooked face. It's
just so nice to see films that can be goofy without treating the audience
like a bunch of idiots. It seems as though filmmakers can't make comedies
these days without fart jokes and dudes getting hit in the crotch.
Anderson makes films that are somehow depressing, sharp and life affirming
all at the same time. His cast of characters features unfeeling zombies,
malcontents, egomaniacs, scoundrels and always at least a couple truly
good souls. I didn't even notice until three quarters of the way through
the movie that I had been smiling the entire time. Every character
is a perfect microcosm of something unique and interesting. Every
character is bursting with personality and life. Gene Hackman as Royal
Tenenbaum comes very close to stealing the show as the displaced patriarch
coming back to claim his twisted family. His performance, in my humble
opinion, is completely Oscar worthy, but probably won't be included,
as the Academy frowns on comedies. He just plays it perfectly. You
manage to love him and feel sorry for him despite his "I'm dying
so take me in" scam he perpetrates on his family. His character
is amazing, at once both a genius, disbarred lawyer and illegal pit
bull fight gambler. While all his children are either bitter or almost
catatonic, he seems to glide through life, not reliving the past,
but living for the day. Eeek, sorry. Somehow the kids turn out to
be geniuses, but complete screw-ups. (All the family members also
manage to wear the same outfits the entire movie.) Luke Wilson plays
"The Baumer," an Ivan Lendel look-a-like who has a complete
mental breakdown right in the middle of a tournament, in what has
to be one of the funniest scenes I've seen in years. Ben Stiller plays
Chas, who was a financial genius but fell apart after his wife died
in a plane crash. He has become completely obsessed with the safety
of his twin sons, drilling them on emergency escape routes out of
their apartment, and dressing them in Adidas track suits identical
to his (presumably because they'll make them faster running out of
a burning building.) Gweneth Paltrow is the adopted daughter (a fact
Royal points out whenever introducing her to anyone) Margot, whose
mood is always blacker than black. She ran away when she was a child
to find her birthparents and subsequently lost her pinky in an axe
accident. As all their lives spiral down the drain, they all move
back in with their independent, somewhat out to lunch mother Ethel,
played by Angelica Huston. Owen Wilson plays their old neighbor who
is now a drug-addicted author who never reconciled his love for Margot.
Unfortunately, Margot's brother is also in love with her. So is her
scientist husband Raleigh St. Clair (played by Bill Murray). The rest
of the movie is a study in dysfunction--and man is it fun to watch.
While there isn't the intricate plot, or the twist ending, there is
a nice arc and enough hysterical character interaction to make it
the funny, feel good film of the year. [movie theater]
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