The Royal Tenenbaums
Directed by: Wes Anderson
Written by: Wes Anderson, Owen Wilson
Starring: Gene Hackman, Ben Stiller, Gwyneth Paltrow, Anjelica Huston, Bill Murray, Danny Glover

Q. When is a comedy not a comedy?
A. When it’s a Wes Anderson film.

If you’ve seen the movie Rushmore, you will probably know what I’m getting at here. Director Wes Anderson and co-writer Owen Wilson have a very distinctive sense of humour, and it’s one that may tickle your funnybone, or it might just leave you staring blankly at the screen. Predicting which of these two reactions you will have when viewing The Royal Tenenbaums, however, is not an easy thing.

The likelihood of laughter and amusement is greatly increased if you have previously seen Rushmore and found it enjoyable. By the same token, if you saw Rushmore and didn’t laugh once… well, then, you probably want to stay as far away from The Royal Tenenbaums as possible. The only real guarantee, however, is that after seeing The Royal Tenenbaums you will have adopted one of two opinions: Wes Anderson is a genius, or Wes Anderson comes from another planet where humour, as we know it, does not exist.

The humour in these films is hit or miss, not because of the fact that it may be offensive to some viewers, or because it’s poorly written, but simply because the humour is so subtle, and so completely deadpan, that you can easily miss the jokes if you’re not actively looking for them. This is part of the charm of Wes Anderson’s movies: he doesn’t give any indication as to when you should laugh and when you shouldn’t. That’s up to you to decide.

The Royal Tenenbaums, in a nutshell, is about a dysfunctional family. Royal Tenenbaum (Gene Hackman) is the father of 2 boys and one adopted daughter. All three of the children were prodigies at a young age; Chas Tenenbaum (Ben Stiller) was an accounting whiz, Margot Tenenbaum (Gwenyth Paltrow) was an award-winning playwright, and Richie Tenenbaum (Luke Wilson) was a tennis star. Despite the tremendous potential they showed as youngsters, the three children grew up to be neurotic, lonely, and depressed. Royal Tenenbaum has since left his wife, Ethel (Angelica Huston) although they never got an official divorce, and he suddenly finds himself experiencing a bit of a mid-life crisis. He wants to make amends with his loved ones. He wants to enjoy life with his children, and maybe even win back the affection of his wife. This strangely coincides with the children’s realization that they miss each other’s company, and so the whole family ends up moving back into the same house to be together again.

Needless to say, the film features a colourful assortment of oddball characters. In addition to the immediate members of the Tenenbaum family, the movie boasts memorable performances from Danny Glover, Bill Murray, Owen Wilson, and Wes Anderson’s non-actor friend, Kumar Pallana, who Anderson has managed to cast in all of his previous films as well. The film is also narrated by Alec Baldwin.

Aside from the familiar cast and a similar sense of humour, The Royal Tenenbaums bears many other stylistic resemblances to Rushmore. The score was once again done by Devo’s Mark Mothersbaugh, and the soundtrack also features classic 70’s rock music. Anderson’s infatuation with documentary style quick shots, bold captions and voice over narration is also revisited here.

Another thing that sticks out about Anderson’s movies is the amount of care that he puts into the costumes, sets, and the “mise en scene” (ie. the arrangement of objects in the scenes). There are many carefully hidden jokes and references that lie below the surface of this film; things like the black Adidas track suits that Chas and his sons wear to the funeral, and the stack of porn movies just out of focus in Elijah’s apartment. It is little details like these that make a movie worth watching over and over again, and thus it is details like these that spawn a cult following. But it is also little details like these that can often go unnoticed by the average movie viewer.

I certainly appreciated the unique style of The Royal Tenenbaums, and I thought that it had its share of hilarious moments, there was still something about it that didn’t sit quite right with me, something that I felt prevented it from reaching the same level of perfection that Rushmore had achieved. I can’t quite put my finger on what it is, but allow me to suggest a few possibilities.

First of all, there are a lot of characters here, each competing for screen time, and each with their own eccentricities and personas. It’s difficult to identify with any one character, and the elaborate back story slows down the pace of the movie a bit. Rushmore was more effective because it focused on one or two quirky characters, as opposed to say… ten. I also think that with the multitude of quirky characters, The Royal Tenenbaums needed a normal or mundane character to ground the film, and to provide contrast to the off-the-wall antics.

The other thing is, all the characters in the film were just so damn depressed all the time, it was kind of a downer, and made it difficult to laugh sometimes, even though I’m pretty sure Wes Anderson wanted us to. One of the amusing aspects of Rushmore was the fact that Max was an insecure teenager who took things way too seriously. We could laugh at him because we knew things weren’t really as dramatic as he made them out to be, but we could also empathize with him, because he was just a kid and he didn’t know any better. The Royal Tenenbaums is a much darker comedy, in fact, almost too dark to be funny. It’s a delicate balance to try and maintain. Not only do you risk losing laughs by injecting sadness, but on the flipside, you could also risk losing any credibility that the characters might have by making them silly and cartoony. During some of the more sentimental moments of the film, I thought it was hard to take any of the characters seriously because of this.

In the end, I found myself asking if there was really a point to it all. There’s too much long-winded storytelling and not enough straightforward jokes for it to be a simple comedy, and yet, there’s not enough genuine emotion for it to be moving. Style, the movie’s definitely got, but substance? I don’t know… I’m not so sure.

The Royal Tenenbaums was certainly one of the most original movies of the year. (That is, unless you consider a reproduction of one’s own work to be unoriginal.) I did think that it was clever, colourful and genuinely funny, but for whatever reason, I just didn’t think it was as lovable as Rushmore was. Maybe it was just too much of a good thing, if that’s possible. However, Wes Anderson’s movies are definitely an acquired taste, so I think that perhaps multiple viewings might clear things up for me.

I would definitely say that this is one of those movies you’ll either love or hate; there’s just no room for opinions in between. I would say that… except for the fact that I myself am standing somewhere in the middle ground. Go figure. — Sean