Royal Tenenbaums, The (2001) – Nostalgia Central

Director Wes Anderson co-wrote the film with actor Owen Wilson. Together, the pair created a wonderfully detailed universe populated by unpredictable and eccentric characters set in a kind of fairy tale New York – home to the unusual Tenenbaum family.

The patriarch, Royal Tenenbaum (Gene Hackman), is an unscrupulous (disbarred) lawyer who, 22 years earlier, abandoned the family after divorcing his distinguished archaeologist wife, Etheline (Anjelica Huston).

His children were all marked geniuses at a young age.

Chas (Ben Stiller) proved to be a financial wizard – but is now going through a breakdown after his wife’s death in a plane crash.

Margot (Gwyneth Paltrow) – who has a penchant for fur coats and eyeliner – was an award-winning playwright before she was out of high school, and is now unhappily married to neurologist Raleigh St. Clair (Bill Murray).

And sullen Richie (Luke Wilson) won the US National Tennis Championship three times before he was 20, before his career abruptly ended after a massive, televised psychological breakdown on court.

Now they are all unhappy adults, having never again achieved the kind of success they had as youngsters. By coincidence, they are drawn back to the Tenenbaum nest in New York at the moment Royal drops back into their lives, announcing he only has months to live.

He wants to reconnect with the family he left behind. He wants to get to know his children and grandchildren, to somehow win back their love. But his kids still harbour resentments, even as they deal with their own crises.

Anderson and Wilson create delightfully unexpected characters, who make intellectualised self-pity hilarious.

As Anderson’s film examines the tyranny of heredity and birth, he also offers a foursquare message about getting over your past and focusing on the present.

While his cast includes both Wilson brothers – long-time friends from his early days in Texas – Anderson branches out in his casting, with splendid results. In particular, he draws an Oscar-calibre performance from Hackman, who makes “Royal” a hilariously self-absorbed monster who proves –  like Shrek – that even ogres need a little love in their lives.

He also elicits deliciously detailed comic creations from Paltrow, Stiller. Bill Murray and Danny Glover.

The Royal Tenenbaums is a tasty treat: a comedy about family that is not for the whole family, blending the human and the just plain strange in ways that never fail to surprise.

Royal Tenenbaum
Gene Hackman
Etheline Tenenbaum
Anjelica Huston
Chas Tenenbaum
Ben Stiller
Margot Tenenbaum
Gwyneth Paltrow
Richie Tenenbaum
Luke Wilson
Eli Cash
Owen Wilson
Raleigh St. Clair
Bill Murray
Henry Sherman
Danny Glover
Dusty
Seymour Cassel
Pagoda
Kumar Pallana
Narrator (voice)
Alec Baldwin
Ari Tenenbaum
Grant Rosenmeyer
Uzi Tenenbaum
Jonah Meyerson
Young Chas Tenenbaum
Aram Aslanian-Persico
Young Margot Tenenbaum
Irina Gorovaia
Young Richie Tenenbaum
Amedeo Turturro
Dudley Heinsbergen
Stephen Lea Sheppard
Young Eli Cash
James Fitzgerald
Peter Bradley
Larry Pine
Walter Sherman
Al Thompson
Rachael Tenenbaum
Jennifer Wachtell
Farmer Father/Tex Hayward
Andrew Wilson
Doctor
Dipak Pallana
Sanjay Gandhi
Sanjay Mathew
Chas’ Secretary
Mary Wigmore
Sing-Sang
Sonam Wangmo
Neville Smythe-Dorleac
Pawel Wdowczak
Yasuo Oshima
Peter Leung
Franklin Benedict
William Sturgis
Eli’s Aunt
Sheelagh Tellerday
Anwar
Salim Malik
Sanchez
Vic Mata
Father Petersen
Philip Denning
Mr Levinson
Rex Robbins
Elaine Levinson
Nova Landaeus-Skinnar

Director
Wes Anderson