Rating of
3/4
A lukewarm take on a very confusing family.
memento_mori - wrote on 08/19/13
I don't really know how to feel about The Royal Tenenbaums.
As the two people in the world who read my reviews know, I'm a Wes Anderson fan. I almost almost enjoy his deadpan humor and great direction, but once in a while comes a story of his that I'm not sure how to feel about.
This movie has qualities of his other movies. It has the quirkiness, great framing, great dialogue and what I enjoy most about Anderson.
So, what's its fatal flaw?: It's messy.
Somewhere in the middle of the movie, it breaks in two. It feels like another movie with parts of the first half cut in.
The way this movie is structured makes me question what kind of movie it is exactly trying to be. It is overwhelming how poor the editing and interludes to other scenes are. I never understood what this movie was going for, what its message was, what its central character or actual story was.
There is a scene near the end involving a car crash that just completely came out of nowhere and it was nonsensical for the character to do such a thing.
Moreover, the second half of this movie completely changes from the first. It focuses on the loosely developed subplot of Richie's love for Margot, and it left me confused as to why we needed to see more of this than of the reunion of the Tenenbaums.
Overall, it's a mess full of perks. Some scenes are crafted wonderfully, with that typical Wes Anderson humor and the camera- and framework were awesome. Otherwise, I see underdeveloped subplots, poor structure and editing and confusingly written characters. Hmm…
