The Royal Tenenbaums

You know you’re in a Wes Anderson movie when camera angles are as distorted as the imagination of the film’s protagonists. In this case it’s the Tenenbaum family, led by eccentric father Royal. Thanks to the genius that is Anderson, this absurdist tragi-comedy tells how the three gifted Tenenbaum siblings found success in youth and failure in later life… while their separated parents have their own demons to battle. Gene Hackman won a Golden Globe for his portrayal of Royal Tenenbaum.

Birdseye view, and the camera pans across rooftops and buildings until we land in a street where a very strange family resides: the Royal Tenenbaums! Siblings Chas (a genius with numbers and maths), Richie (a self-styled artist and tennis ace), and adopted daughter Margot (a successful playwright at an extremely young age) are somewhat bewildered that father Royal (G. Hackman) and mom Etheline (Anjelica Houston) are separating. But life goes on and it does for the Tenenbaums. The siblings are now grown up and Chas (Ben Stiller) has become anxious and over-protective over his two children ever since their mother died in a plane crash (the dog survived). Richie (Luke Wilson) has been secretly in love with his adopted sister Margot (Gwyneth Paltrow) ever since his youth, but Margot – a secret smoker – is married to neurologist Raleigh St. Clair (Bill Murray) whom she mostly ignores by locking herself into the bathroom all day long and watching TV. She’s also having an affair with Eli Cash (Owen Wilson), a close friend of the Tenenbaums since childhood and Richie’s best friend! Richie has no idea that his mate has an affair with the woman he loves, at the same time he knows that Margot is a married woman and therefore he travels the world to get away from it all. Meanwhile, Royal has been kicked out of the hotel he’s been staying in for years and pretends to have stomach cancer to win back the love of Etheline when he finds out that her accountant Henry Sherman (Danny Glover) has proposed to her…

This then is the basis for complete and utter chaos to unfold – Wes Anderson style! Quirky montages, surreal sets, deadpan performances and screwball scenarios – you know what to expect when watching an Anderson movie! This hilarious (and occasionally sad) portrayal of a highly dysfunctional family – written by the director and co-written by Owen Wilson – was nominated for an Academy Award and deservedly so. Brighter and bolder than ever thanks to the magnificent Blu-ray version, The Royal Tenenbaums is a feast not to be missed and this disc furthermore offers an array of Special Features.