The Royal Tenenbaums Makes A Melancholy Interior With An Eccentric Exterior

As said in my review of Rushmore, there's a fascinating undercurrent of melancholy to the works of Wes Anderson that sharply contrasts with the quirky visual aesthetic found throughout his work. Externally, Anderson's stories occupy realms populated by whimsical architecture and stylized characters, but such elements are typically in the service of stories very much in touch with reality. The themes of Anderson's works tap into universal human experiences just as potently as his visuals dazzle the eyes. His 2001 effort, The Royal Tenenbaums, is one of his most overtly despondent projects in tone as it explores the Tenenbaum family and the various problems its individual members are grappling with.


Interestingly, a heavier emphasis on sorrow is accompanied by a production design that's far more heightened than Anderson's prior projects. The Royal Tenenbaums was only the third feature film directorial effort ever for Anderson and in order to bring it to life, the decision was made to trade the down-to-Earth Texas environments of his first two movies for extravagant sets that make the home of the Tenenbaums look like something that escaped from the pages of a zany children's book. Juxtaposing against these stylized surroundings is a whole bunch of family drama typically originating from Royal Tenenbaum (Gene Hackman), a washed-up old man who learns his ex-wife (who never fully divorced him) is looking to get remarried.

Now that Etheline Tenenbaum (Anjelica Huston) may be about to start a new chapter of her life, Royal is determined to wedge himself into that life once more. The actions of Royal during his divorce, as well as numerous other instances of bad parenting, instilled a deep resentment towards him from his trio of kids. Those youngsters have grown into an assortment of troubled adults, with Chris (Ben Stiller) a paranoid mess, Richie (Luke Wilson) a former tennis player harboring a forbidden crush and Margot (Gwyneth Paltrow) feeling like her life is an aimless mess. So deep is these three's contempt for their dad that the only Royal Tenenbaum can re-enter their life is via faking a life-threatening sickness. Once Royal comes back into the lives of his kids, all sorts of troubles emerge as everyone is forced to confront their own individual problems to varying degrees of success.

The saga of the Tenenbaums is one rife with dark comedy and surprisingly introspective journies for the individual characters. Happily, such journies end up being realistically unpolished, instead of just ending the story as the complete opposite of what they started out as, Royal and the rest of his brood manage to make distinct but still smaller jumps in behavior that suggest they are capable of change while signifying how far they still have to go. A Wes Anderson film like The Royal Tenenbaums may find itself deviating from reality in terms of visuals, but it also keeps part of itself firmly rooted in realistic depictions how troubled family members forced to be together may start to reconcile.

Taking a more realistic approach to the characters ends up making the various members of the Tenenbaum family all the more interesting instead of just the pile of quirks they could have ended up as. Royal Tenenbaum especially has some real interesting depth to him, one can never quite guess just how much genuine affection he has for his loved ones and how much of that behavior is a total sham. Gene Hackman was a brilliant choice for this role, the guy was known for playing straightforward antagonists throughout his career in everything from Superman: The Movie to Antz, and while his character is frequently antagonistic through The Royal Tenenbaums, Hackman also shows a gift for imbuing humanity as well as small instances of realistic behavior into the role that makes Royal Tenenbaum a thoroughly fascinating figure.

A handful of actors make their sole appearances in Wes Anderson's filmography here, specifically Ben Stiller, Danny Glover and Gwyneth Paltrow. They all do solid work here (though Stiller, admittedly, is playing more in his wheelhouse as a constantly neurotic dude), with Paltrow especially doing compelling work as Margot that really stands out as among her other roles. Luke Wilson similarly subverts expectations with a performance that has him containing darkness beneath a go-with-the-flow attitude, particularly in a pivotal third act scene that he and some accompanying exemplary camerawork make into a harrowing sequence of sharp realism. That scene is a top-notch reminder that, though the members of the Tenenbaum family may seem a bunch of eccentricities hiding human bodies, they're actually fully-fleshed out people whose inner turmoil makes a great center for the excellent The Royal Tenenbaums to situate it's entire story around.