The Royal Tenenbaums (2001)

Film: The Royal Tenenbaums

Director: Wes Anderson

Country: USA

Released: October 2001

Runtime: 109 minutes

Genre: Comedy

Studio: Touchstone Pictures / Disney

Influenced: Noah Baumbach, Marc Webb, Jared Hess, Richard Ayoade, Greta Gerwig

Wes Anderson co-wrote the script for The Royal Tenenbaums with his friend and long-time collaborator, Owen Wilson. The two first crossed paths as students in a playwriting class at the University of Texas and instantly formed a creative partnership. Their first project was a short film called Bottle Rocket, which served as the prototype for the later feature film of the same name released in 1996. The two continued to collaborate on subsequent projects, including Rushmore (1998) and The Royal Tenenbaums, together creating a unique cinematic template that is now considered to be Anderson's alone. Some elements of The Royal Tenenbaums are specific to the director's distinctive visual style, including meticulously composed shots, a vibrant colour palette and retro elements, but Anderson's approach to storytelling and the unique mix of melancholy and humour owes a great debt to Wilson. For this film in particular, they drew inspiration from writer J.D. Salinger and the movies of Orson Welles and Louis Malle.

Many of the actors in Rushmore appear again in The Royal Tenenbaums – there's even a cameo for Max Fischer's dad, the magnificent Seymour Cassel – while many of the themes (widowers and dysfunctional families), as well as stylistic (chapter title fonts) and narrative (play within a play) devices, are repeated in The Royal Tenenbaums. It's almost as if Anderson and Owen wanted to create, and succeeded in creating, a more perfect version of Rushmore. The film's title sequence, designed by the artist Eric Anderson, features a series of book covers showcasing the fictional works of the characters, providing a creative introduction to the film's universe. Also, the use of a narrator (Alec Baldwin) to guide the audience through the Tenenbaum family's history adds a unique touch to the storytelling.

Baldwin introduces us to Royal Tenenbaum (Gene Hackman), the family patriarch who is estranged from his wife Etheline (Anjelica Huston) and his family, and who is now concocting a plan to reconnect with his family by pretending to be terminally ill. This deception brings the Tenenbaums back under one roof, including the three gifted Tenenbaum siblings: Chas Tenenbaum (Ben Stiller), a financial wizard; Richie Tenenbaum (Luke Wilson), a former tennis prodigy; and Margot Tenenbaum (Gwyneth Paltrow), a playwright. As long-buried family issues resurface, the film explores themes of family dynamics, failure, redemption and the pursuit of individual identity. The romantic tension between adopted siblings Margot and Richie adds complexity to the family dynamic, while Chas' struggle with the tragic loss of his wife and his overprotective parenting style adds an element of dark comedy.

The Royal Tenenbaums received critical acclaim for its originality and performances, and was nominated for an Oscar for Best Original Screenplay (Anderson and Wilson). Gene Hackman also won the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor in a Musical or Comedy, and the large ensemble cast – including Danny Glover, Bill Murray and Kumar Pallana – received praise for its wide array of quirky performances, helping the film quickly gain a cult following. The film's soundtrack, featuring music by Devo's Mark Mothersbaugh, also contributes to its distinctive atmosphere. Anderson's unique directorial approach, characterised by carefully composed shots and symmetrical framing, would be refined and honed on his later successful releases – I'm particularly fond of his animated films Fantastic Mr Fox (2009) and Isle of Dogs (2018) – but nothing for me matches the comedy and whimsy of his early movies.