One of my top five desert island films
I absolutely get all the reasons why a person wouldn't like this film and that's completely fine. I don't think I'm somehow better or a part of this pretentious "in" crowd for loving it. Truth be told, when I saw this in the theater in 2002, I didn't like it for most of the reasons people have said. Then something happened when I watched it again a year later -- I loved it. I loved it irrationally. I loved it so much I thought I was in need of help because I couldn't understand why. For almost a year I watched it nearly every night. When it came on here, I watched it with glee, pausing often to examine the details of every scene (i.e. Ethlene's many suiters montage). There is a push/pull feel to "The Royal Tenenbaums" (and most Wes Anderson films) that often surpasses character development and plot. To me it's like entering a dream in a parallel universe that's real but somehow also stuck in that dream. The near constant dry humor makes me laugh out loud, even now. I love the often humorous montages, these meticulous dollhouse scenes, the constant symbolism, the hidden messages, the drawn out dialog but without warning you're hit with some very real, heavy, not so pretty dysfunctional, flawed scenes only to be put back into levity moments after. In many scenes, you're in both spaces at the same time. Not many films can get away with this. More on that in a second. Gene Hackman was brilliant as was Anjelica Houston, Danny Glover and Bill Murray. Gwyneth Paltrow, Ben Stiller, Owen Wilson, Luke Wilson and Kumar Pallana all embodied their strange characters beautifully. THE SOUNDTRACK!! Glorious. Perfect. Amazing. Wes Anderson always puts one hell of a soundtrack together and this one is one of the greatest of all time. The sequences and the soundtrack have become this warm center that play almost as important a role as the actors themselves. It's clear that taking on these one-dimensional cartoon characters who were once the "grass is greener" family and driving them into severe, comedic, absurdist, dysfunction in their adult lives is a way of saying "appreciate what you are and stop looking at other peoples' lives as though they're any more with it than you are." I think we all knew a family like this. There is a deeper undercurrent however that I think sidesteps the plot and character development entirely. It's why I think my love for this film is so bedrocked. Okay here we go, the "get it" factor: Luke Wilson's disturbing scene put it all into context. It was powerfully dark, perhaps one of the darker things I'd seen in a film. It made me want to spontaneously combust during that flash sequence to Elliott Smith (a whole other sad parallel there) only for me to immediately be condensed back into comic relief the very next scene. That's not easy to do but Wes Anderson pulled it off several times in Tenenbaums. I think that's where the absolute love of this format stems: This strange feeling of being pulled in and abruptly out of very profound moments and very comedic moments as if to be reminded "It's not really all that serious but it is, but it isn't." It brings about thoughts on life itself, real life, and maybe that's the message I needed to be reminded? It either clicks with you or it doesn't but The Royal Tenenbaums, at least for me, is one of those films I will never stop loving for everything it is and for everything it isn't, but is. Read more
