The Royal Tenenbaums (2001) - Wes Anderson

The Royal Tenenbaums is one of those films that everybody makes references to and even if you've never seen it, you've somehow become at least aware of, if not familiar, with the film's icons.  The first time I "came across" a Wes Anderson character, it was my friend Cate dressed up as Margot Tenenbaum for Halloween.  Like most 19 year olds, I pretended to know exactly whom the reference was to, but deep down I legitimately thought she was referencing a character from The Birdcage...yes, that Robin Williams movie.  A pretty embarrassing mix up but when I finally watched The Royal Tenenbaums, it was like a light bulb went off in the recesses of my mind.  You know when Zach Braff's character in Garden State asks Natalie Portman's character what she's listening to and she says, "The Shins, they'll change your life"?  That's how I felt about The Royal Tenenbaums the first time I saw it...it was my New Slang. (Zero apologies for the lame referential joke there)

The film's premise is simple but the story is a poignant look at the ever-changing bonds between a family.  The Tenenbaums were once a great family in a New York City-esque metropolis until Royal's many indiscretions led to divorce.  20 years after the divorce, we are introduced to the now grown-up Tenenbaum children, all of whom are depressed in their own ways.  In his interviews with Matt Zoller Seitz, Anderson noted that one of the film's major themes is divorce and its on-going emotional consequences.  As he points out, in the wake of divorce, an entire family mourns but a divorce is no accident...divorces are deliberate and the expected outcome of unresolved issues.

From the film's onset, you get the idea that the Tenenbaum children's problems stem from their father Royal, who truthfully, is a terrible father and kind of a crappy person.  He intentionally shot Chas with a BB gun when Chas was a child, made a habit of always reminding Margot that she was adopted, and took Richie to dog fights.  After the divorce, Royal moved into a hotel suite and cut contact with his family for 20 years.  When the hotel eventually kicks him out because he's broke, he comes back to his already-fragile family and claims that he is dying.  He isn't...he's just broke and needs money.  When the truth comes out, Royal's deception sends the family spiraling into yet another emotional crisis.

The Royal Tenenbaums is noted for its plethora of iconic characters but perhaps its greatest legacy is the storybook-esque and timeless world that the Tenenbaums live in.  Anderson creates a world that feels like a cross between 1960 America and early 20th century Europe with a touch of Harry Potter.  It is a world of modern conveniences but people still travel by steamboat with their trunks.  The world is a whimsical one where Richie has a pet hawk, Chas invented "dalmatian mice", and Richie's friend Eli Cash is a renowned author of very wordy Western novels that truthfully don't make much sense.  In addition to Anderson's establishment of his Andersonian world, The Royal Tenenbaums is visually striking to where even a casual viewer can observe that it looks different from other films that they have seen.  I am not a filmmaker so I won't pretend to know the technical mechanisms of film making, but I can recognize signature shots because well, they're right in front of me.  I recognize that Truffaut has his rolling wide angle shots and Wes Anderson has what I call over head "still-life" interjecting shots captioned in Futura Bold font.  These are quintessential characteristics of Anderson's distinctive style that he continues to refine in later films.  Anderson's playful but poignant storytelling style allows him to depict and show difficult issues that would otherwise be gruesome, like suicide, in an eerily beautiful way.