Running Time: 109 Minutes Director: Wes Anderson Stars: Gene Hackman, Anjelica Huston, Gwyneth Paltrow, Ben Stiller, Luke Wilson, Owen Wilson, Danny Glover, Bill Murray
Trailer:
Review
The Royal Tenenbaums features a cast of Wes Anderson regulars although it also sees a new technique in Wes Andersons film making style narration, which only helps but lift the dead pan spirit of the film
The Tenebaum siblings are an extremely gifted group of kids, they excel during their childhood becoming successful at early ages but as they get older they seem to lose track of themselves, their skills and each other. Royal Tenenbaum is the head of the family until his divorce with the children's mother Etheline. As the film switches to the present we see that Royal has been living in a hotel for the last few years, but his funds have ran dry and he is to be evicted, he sees his chance at getting back into the family home when Pagoda Royal's friend, informant and the families butler tells Royal of the families problems.
As usual with Wes Anderson's films The Royal Tenenbaums features many of his usual techniques such as front facing camera angles, strangely he does not use the Rostrum Camera technique in this film, I say strangely because the film features a lot of “Dalmatian mice” in previous films, mainly “The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou” The animals were created using this technique. My theory on the use of real mice is that it looks more realistic which fits the style better. the Royal Tenenbaums also has the Hyper realism factor of Rushmore the children could easily fit in to a Roald Dahl story. Another Anderson staple that made it into the film was Typography, the film features many title card-esque scenes and even has chapter breaks which are presented as a page of a book, the book describes the scene as it is about to be played out. Different fonts are also used to distinguish between the family and non-family members.
I mentioned previously that the film is narrated, the film is set out like a novel, possibly to represent the “Genius” of the Tenenbaum children. Another staple of Anderson's films is to feature a character underwater, increasing the number of characters underwater by each film, The Royal Tenenbaums is Anderson's third film and features three characters underwater at one point in the film, the film also emphasises the number three on a few occasions. Finally the film also features the typical slow motion ending that is a frequent occurrence in Anderson's films, with the exception of the Darjeeling Limited.
The Royal Tenenbaums is probably Wes Anderson's true dysfunctional family film, Royal leaves the family early on and maintains little contact, the children all experience great success as children and greater disappointment as adults, the clothes of the characters do not really change, there is a strong sense of 70’s style in the characters as Anderson wanted the characters to seem as though they were stuck in their “hay day” eras. The Tenenbaum children played by Ben Stiller (Chas Tenenbaum) , Gwyneth Paltrow (Margot Tenenbaum) and Luke Wilson (Richie Tenenbaum) are all incredibly strong characters who all stand out, as does childhood friend of Richie, Eli Cash (Owen Wilson) who has always wanted to be one of the Tenebaums. Of course, Billy Murray and Danny Glover get special mentions, although playing minor roles both of them contribute greatly to the comedy and mood of the film.
The Soundtrack as usual was composed by Mark Mothersbaugh and features a typical mixture of songs from the 60’s 70’s and 80’s. Some of the film's most memorable scenes are complimented by the strong soundtrack, those of you who have seen it will probably remember the scene in which the Elliot Smith song “Needle in the Hay” plays over the top, other memorable scenes include Richies bird Mordecai first flight in the film which is shown as the “Naa naa” part of Hey Jude kicks in. The soundtrack also features the Rolling Stones yet another typical Anderson Trademark.
The Royal Tenenbaums is my favourite Wes Anderson film, it was the first of his films I watched without having to think about whether or not I liked it afterwards, the subtle and dark humour work well and the cast compliment the story. It may have been the ensemble cast that did it for me, but I do like a film with a big cast. I watched this film twice in a row because I enjoyed it so much, I also found it to be laugh out loud funny, something I did not find in his other films.
Stars: Gerard Butler as Milo Boyd Jennifer Aniston as Nicole Hurley Gio Perez as Uncle Sam Joel Marsh Garland as Dwight Jason Kolotouros as Gelman
Plot: Milo Boyd (GERARD BUTLER, 300, The Ugly Truth), a down-on-his-luck bounty hunter, gets his dream job when he is assigned to track down his bail-jumping ex-wife, reporter Nicole Hurley (JENNIFER ANISTON, TV's "Friends"). Milo expects an easy payday, but nothing's ever easy with him and Nicole. The exes continually one-up each other – until they find themselves on the run for their lives.
Extras:
Scene Access
Bonus Trailers
Featurettes
BD-Live
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My Thoughts:
I always thought the trailer for this one looked good... so was happy when I found it cheap in a used store. I found when I watched it that I enjoyed it quite a bit. It has a fun storyline and I like the cast and their characters. The only thing I didn't care for here was the ending itself. The ending wasn't bad enough to ruin the film, but it did have me shaking my head. It was as if they knew the story they knew the story they wanted to tell but just didn't know how to go about ending it... and felt like they basically went with the first thing that popped in their mind.
Brian's mother thinking he is a lawyer was fun. Also the messenger friend standing in the middle of the street because of the traffic light for the blind
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September 19, 2017, 10:45:21 PM
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