The Magnificent Tenenbaums

Seldom have I seen a comedy with the underlying current of sadness found in Wes Anderson’s latest film, “The Royal Tenenbaums.” The Tenenbaum family, brilliant as they may be, is emotionally dysfunctional. The Tenenbaum patriarch, Royal Tenenbaum (Gene Hackman), was a successful New York lawyer until he was disbarred. His wife, Etheline (Anjelica Huston), is a housing department anthropologist and author of a book on their children, each of whom were regarded as prodigies in different fields. Their oldest, Richie (Luke Wilson), became a championship tennis player. Their other son, Chas (Ben Stiller), became a successful financial planner. Their daughter, Margot (Gwyneth Paltrow), whom Royal always makes the point of mentioning is adopted, is a gifted playwright. The children’s best friend, Eli Cash (Owen Wilson), who always dreamed of being a Tenenbaum, becomes a best-selling author of historical fantasy, such as “Old Custer,” which looks at what might have happened if General Custer had escaped Little Big Horn with his life.

Just as the children are reaching adolescence, Etheline asks Royal to leave, but never asks for a divorce. The separation affects each differently at a point down the road. After the end of his legal career, Royal has been living off the good graces of a ritzy hotel until they’ve had enough of his non-payment. With nowhere else to go, Royal enlists the help of his elevator operator friend, Dusty (Seymour Cassel), to convince Etheline he’s dying. Meanwhile, after initial successes, the Tenenbaum children have fallen into emotional ruts and move in with Etheline. Even though Etheline has been involved with other men, she learns that Henry Sherman (Danny Glover), a widowed accountant who shares an office with her, has been in love with her for many years. With the family under one roof again, the Tenenbaums start to feel the ties that bind (and gag), and try to bring closure to certain open wounds in their lives.

“The Royal Tenenbaums” favorably evokes a number of sources, such as the writings of William Saroyan and Anne Tyler, who often create characters trying to turn their negatives into positives. The movie also reminded me of Orson Welles’s treatment of “The Magnificent Ambersons,” which showed the decline and fall of a family that didn’t change with the times. Like Anderson’s previous film, “Rushmore,” the characters in “The Royal Tenenbaums” are ones that accept changes slowly, like five Max Fischers. Situations force the family to come to grips with their past so that they may resume some sort of normalcy in their lives. For example, Margot, who has reached a creative block after initial success, locks herself in her bathroom for several hours every day. No amount of persuasion from her husband, neurologist Raleigh St. Clair (Bill Murray), can bring her out. Richie, whose tennis career ended in infamy, has been on a sea cruise for over a year when Royal tells the family he’s dying.

Anderson and co-writer Owen Wilson pay equal amounts of attention to both the comedy and the drama. Early in the movie, we see Chas, whose wife died in a plane crash, rousing his sons for a fire drill, and casually telling them afterwards that they would have died in a real fire. Margot is always hiding her smoking from her loved ones, even though she’s been a smoker since age twelve. In his final tennis match, Richie becomes so upset, he winds up playing with no shoes and only one sock. The script also leaves the viewer to wonder if Raleigh, whose practice seems to be focused on one troubled patient, is a reputable neurologist or a quack looking for attention. After all, every person close to the Tenenbaum children except Royal has become a best-selling author. All the quirks are out in the open, but the actors never crack a smile to ruin the moment. Alec Baldwin adds a bedtime-story like narration to make the audience care about this family.

Hackman, though, is not under these restrictions. In his family, Royal is the odd man out, the one who never takes himself as seriously as the rest of the family take themselves. While he’d always encouraged his children to excel, he also encouraged them to play (though Royal plays rough when he’s armed with a BB gun). I enjoy the scene where Royal takes his warmup-suit clad grandchildren for a ride on a garbage truck. Yet, he also looks like an unscrupulous character who has proven some lack of scruples through his efforts to re-enter his family’s life. It’s a revelation to see the comic side of Hackman, who’s often associated with his outstanding dramatic roles.

“The Royal Tenenbaums” shows a growing maturity and confidence in the partnership between Anderson and the Wilson brothers, who have had a part in all of Anderson’s films (A third Wilson brother, Andrew, appears in a cameo as Margot’s biological father). In “Rushmore,” Anderson and Owen Wilson created the same sort of quirky look at academia, but they sometimes were a bit too serious in their approach. In “The Royal Tenenbaums,” they have found that delicate balance between comedy and drama, and walk that tightrope beautifully. Etheline and her children need to learn the lesson that all work and no play doesn’t necessarily make them dull. All work and no play, though, does hamper their ability for growth and excellence. Watching that process unfold makes “The Royal Tenenbaums” a royal treat.