The Royal Tenenbaums [DVD]

Three children - all precocious geniuses in their youth - struggle with the trials of adulthood in this eccentric black comedy from Wes Anderson, writer and director of “Bottle rocket” and “Rushmore”. In their pre-teens these three suffered the departure of their corrupt father, Royal, disintegrating familial harmony. Twenty-two years later a remorseful and estranged Royal seeks to return to the fold, on the pretext that he has terminal cancer. Now adults, the siblings feel like abject failures at life and are beset by excessive emotional problems, principally emanating from Royal’s off-hand mistreatment of them. The characters that occupy this fantastical world are imbued with an aching melancholia not dissimilar in tone to the writings of J.D. Salinger. Indeed the Tenenbaum children can’t help but resemble the precociously talented yet tragically dysfunctional Glass siblings of Salinger’s iconic text, each living with thwarted and frustrated desires. Utilising a series of vignettes and by presenting surreal, exaggerated interiors, saturated with character history and nuance, Anderson continues his exploration of the themes of the outsider, family, and the difficult transition to adulthood. This enchanting film is a finely detailed and mannered affair that whilst not eliciting uproarious laughs, successfully amuses in a wry, offbeat and endearingly eccentric manner. In an era when the Farrelly brothers and Adam Sandler dominate the comedy genre, Anderson represents a left-of-field auteur with a delightfully skewed perspective on notions of narrative, entertainment and cinema. Stellar cast includes: Gene Hackman, Anjelica Huston, Ben Stiller, Gwyneth Paltrow, Luke Wilson, Owen Wilson, Danny Glover and Bill Murray.