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Title ::: The Royal Tenanbaums
Movie Review by Wayne Cronin
Cast: Gene Hackman, Anjelica Huston, Ben Stiller, Gwyeth Paltrow, Luke Wilson, Owen Wilson, Bill Murray and Danny Glover.
Directed by: Wes Anderson

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Having seen trailers for The Royal Tenenbaums I was unsure as to what to expect. Even the title of the film is rather obscure. And that all-star cast?

Going by Wes Anderson's 1998 movie, Rushmore, it must surely be something a bit different, right?

Based on the Tenanbaum family, the film begins with a quick back round introduction of each family member. Head of the clan is father Royal (Hackman), a wheeler-dealer type who anyone would find difficult to trust. Etheline (Huston) is the hard working and permanently exhausted looking mother. They have three highly gifted children - Chas (Stiller), a property and finance whiz, Richie (Owen Wilson) a tennis champion who won the U.S. Nationals three years in a row and Margot (Paltrow) a playwright who received a fifty thousand dollar grant in the ninth grade.

Royal and Etheline separated and as a result the whole family was divided. All memories of the brilliant Tenanbaum children are forgotten and each one of them embark on their own path of self-discovery and lose touch with one another.

Incidentally, this was considered to be their father's fault.

Alec Balwin narrates this account of family history to us and the remainder of the film is told in a chapter by chapter book form. Confused? You won't be - it all works very well.

Once everyone is up to speed on the family history, we continue. Realising that he is broke, Royal Tenanbaum hatches a plan to reunite with his family. Claiming that he is at deaths door, he succeeds in bringing them all together. Of course things don't go quite as he planned and each member of the family have their own individual mini-traumas to deal with.

To describe the Tenanbaums as dysfunctional is an understatement. Ensconced in their New York mansion, they all seem to be madder than March hares. Their preferred taxi company is the Gypsy Cab Co. with it's beaten up cars. The way some of them dress is bizarre - Dame Barbara Cartland would have loved their penchant for pastel pinks! Each character has a 'uniform' of sort which identifies them as individual.

Essentially there is no central character in this film, each one is larger than life and thus played by a well-known actor. Hackman is suited to the role of family head, nobody can balk orders like he can. The normally good-natured Paltrow gives a refreshing performance as Margot, the chain-smoking rebel. Bill Murray is ever funny as Margot's dead pan husband, Raleigh St. Clair.

Steeped in black humour, ala Rushmore, The Royal Tenanbaums is a truly offbeat comedy. As funny and odd as it is, the story remains focused and doesn't stray.

As for the general theme, well, you decide - family values; take a chance; live and let live.

Verdict: (3 stars out of 5) Wayne Cronin.

The Royal Tenanbaums is on general release from Friday 15th March 2002.
Cert:15 Running Time: 110 mins

 
   

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