By: debbie lynn elias
Screenwriters, Wes Anderson and Owen Wilson, certainly know how to put the “fun” in dysfunctional, as in family that is, with their offbeat and quirky look at the foibles of the Royal Tenenbaum family. With prodigies for children and supreme family wealth obtained at an early age, Anderson and Wilson give us a tale of a family who have seen the top of the mountain and are now rolling down its backside.
Narrated by Alec Baldwin, we learn that the Tenenbaums live in one of those Magnificent Ambersons-type townhomes in what was once a very upscale area of New York. Each of the three Tenenbaum children had their own room on their own floor of the house with their own window overlooking the neighborhood. Years prior, patriarch Royal Tenenbaum, once a reknowned attorney (aren’t they all), lost his license to practice law and served time for tax evasion thanks to his eldest son, Chas, the financier. But for his minimum security prison term, Royal has spent the past 22 years living in a hotel from which he is now being evicted as he is broke. Chas is now a widower with two small boys named Ari and Uzi, and is obsessed with home safety. Youngest son, Richie, a former tennis icon who suffered a meltdown on the court at the height of his career, now wanders aimlessly around the world dressed in tennis togs and camel colored cashmere as a third class passenger on steamer ships hopelessly in love with his sister, Margot. Lucky for Richie, Margot was adopted. And Margot, obviously suffering from a Greta Garbo-Mata Hari obsession, wrote her first play at age 9, travelled the world extensively (her family knows not to where) but has done nothing of value for years but for locking herself in the bathroom soaking in a tub for 6 hours a day. Thank God she tied the television to the radiator at the foot of the bathtub! And then there’s Ethilene, the rock, and seeming sanity, of the family. A devout mother who stayed at home caring for her children, she never divorced Royal, despite not hearing from him at all in seven years. She did, however, find the time to become an accomplished author and archaeologist.
Then, of course, we have the peripheral Tenenbaums – Richie’s best friend, Eli Cash, who lives across the street and who always dreamed of being a Tenenbaum (and dating Margot), as well as intellectual Raleigh St. Clair who is married to Margot, but has no idea who she is or what she does. Pagoda, the Tenenbaum faithful servant, who still maintains loyalty to Royal despite his absence from the family which is interesting, in that Pagoda was once tried for attempted murder – for stabbing Royal. And of course, Henry Sherman, Ethilene’s long time accountant who suddenly announces his love for her and desire to marry. One problem though – she’s still married to Royal.
After years of separation, the Tenenbaums now suddenly all land under the same roof one more time. Margot – because of her depression. Chas and the boys – because of lack of adequate home safety. Royal – because he claims to be dying of cancer and wants to be “with his family.” He also seems to have a belated sense of familial responsibility for which he now wants to atone without anyone the wiser. Richie – because he was always closest to Royal and wants him happy in his final days…not to mention the fact that Margot is there. What transpires is nothing short of pure writing genius. The individual personas and quirks of each character rise to the surface, meshing into a world of depressive comedy and ironic laughter through devilishly delicious dialogue.
Gene Hackman as Royal is charismatically menacing, never more so than when introducing Margot to whom he always refers as “my adopted daughter” or when mandating the family go visit grandmother, someone Margot has never met, “but it doesn’t matter because you’re adopted.” Ouch! And of course, grandmother is dead. Always critical of some aspect of each of this children, his delivery is matter-of-fact, dead on and outright funny. Anjelica Huston is ideal as Ethilene, adding a grace, presence and calm to every situation. I’m especially fond of the fact she has never redecorated the house and still has every drawing ever done by the children hanging on the walls. Ben Stiller and Luke Wilson are wonderful in displaying their respective neuroses and sibling rivalry and “hatred” as Chas and Richie while Gwyneth Paltrow is enthralling as seemingly unemotional, dead-pan, mink-wearing Margot. Owen Wilson plays Eli for all its worth, always teetering on the edge of pushing the envelope, while Danny Glover and Bill Murray round out the group. Enhancing the excellent script and superb acting, is Anderson’s sharp directing and use of mood music ranging from 60’s Beatles to “A Charlie Brown Christmas.”
“The Royal Tenenbaums” is silly but full of love. It shows that even at their worst, there is always some good in every family – well maybe. I wasn’t hard pressed to see many aspects of my own family in these characters and was reminded of my own brother’s wedding where people commented that my brother and I must despise each other based on our ongoing barrage of off-handed insults and cruel put-downs. My father’s reply, “If they didn’t do that, then I’d worry.”
