‘The Tenenbaum’ are poignant and strangly dysfunctional
What makes The Royal Tenen-baums poignant, a wee bit depressing and coldly funny, is the film’s ability to rationalize that family is not Ward and June Clever, rather something terribly more irrational and dysfunctional.
Anderson, who co-wrote the film with buddy Owen Wilson (Behind Enemy Lines), has created a brilliant meshing of storytelling, idiosyncratic characters and sharp cinematic detail, much like he did with his second picture, 1998’s critically acclaimed Rushmore.
Like Rushmore, Anderson bestows upon the viewer a mélange of emotions. Not only did I laugh out loud throughout the film’s 103 minutes, but I felt the urge to scream at the main characters, and was finding creepy joy in noticing the similarities between the nutjob Tenenbaums and my own mildly-deranged family. They flaunt dysfunction because nearly every family tries to cover their craziness. Perhaps that is wrong.
Hackman is at his finest as the Tenenbaum patriarch. His delivery of dialogue, deadpan facial expressions, and overall acting timbre, make him an earnest candidate for best actor at the Academy Awards this March. However, and not to invalidate Hackman’s performance, the entire cast steps out of their usual comfort zones and become enlarged via portraying characters drawn outside the box.
All I can say is bravo. Movies should make us uncomfortable and should make us think. Films that inspire drooling have their place, but turn rancid and tired after one outing. Thank goodness, people like Wes Anderson and the cast from The Royal Tenenbaums still exist, or we would drown in stupidity.