The Royal Tenenbaums (2001)
In the midst of the college application process, I have had to take a little break from my usual cinema studies. In no way, shape, or form have I stopped watching films, but I have temporarily hit the pause button on writing about them. That void has been filled with personal statements, supplemental essays, all that college stuff. There’s a lot of movies that I watched recently that I’ve wanted to write about, but the one that’s really caught my attention is Wes Anderson’s The Royal Tenenbaums (2001). I’m not very well versed in Anderson’s style, I will admit that the last Wes Anderson film I watched was Fantastic Mr. Fox (2009) in the movie theater. Even though it was 11 years ago, I distinctly remember how beautiful the movie was, and those feelings came back to me during The Royal Tenenbaums. This movie is gorgeous and heartbreaking.
The Royal Tenenbaums is about three child geniuses, Margot (Gwenyth Paltrow), Richie (Luke Wilson), and Chas (Ben Stiller) Tenenbaum. Their parents, Royal (Gene Hackman) and Etheline (Anjelica Huston) Tenenbaum separated when the children were young, and almost all recollection of the brilliance of the children was eventually eradicated. Most of the reasoning behind this eradication is placed on their father. The Royal Tenenbaums is the story of the dysfunctional family’s reunion. This film deals with themes of separation, failure, and love.
The Tenenbaum family does not subsist as a clan. Early in the film we see Royal separating from his wife and leaving his children, which sets the psychological and implicative scenery for the whole movie. The characters in this movie often feel quite blunt, we’re introduced to this sense of frankness the moment that Royal sits his children around the dining room table and tells them he’s leaving them. Not only does this create a physical separation between Royal and his children, by not raising them there is a serious emotional separation as well that we can see when they’re united in adulthood.
The quirk and charm of this movie comes from the characters, especially the Tenenbaum children. Margot is a gifted writer, Richie is a talented athlete, and Chas is excellent at business. Their mother Etheline, valued their education and cultivation of their abilities over everything. But these childhood gifts don’t age with grace. In maturity, the Tenenbaum children are all failures. Everyday they live their lives in the shadow of their past as child prodigies. Because things came easy to them as children, in adulthood they have trouble coping with failure, making them extremely broken people.
To go along with the general blunt tone of the film, this movie is quite sad. The setting, cinematography, and costuming disguises the sorrowful tone in a slight way, but honestly, the more you think about it the more you realize how truly heartbreaking this movie actually is. One of the main reasons for this is because of the way Anderson expresses love. Although they’ve been separated for 22 years, when Royal hears that Etheline is getting remarried, he becomes extremely jealous. Whether or whether not Royal actually wants to be with Etheline is complicated, but it’s clear that he doesn’t want her with someone else. Etheline’s finance, Henry, shows her love and affection, contrasting her relationship to Royal in a way that makes him insecure. As complicated as that “love triangle” is, Margot and Richie are also in love. Yes, two of the siblings are in love. Because Margot was adopted, technically their relationship would not be considered incest, but they are still legally siblings. They try to hide their feelings for one another, but love knows no boundaries and the odd couple has their family’s blessing by the end of the film.
This movie is an excellent offbeat comedy, the sadness mixed with frustration mixed with Wes Anderson’s aesthetic makes this film unique and memorable. I highly recommend to everyone!
