Product Description

The family of three former child prodigies reunite after learning that their father, Royal Tenenbaum, has a terminal illness.
Genre: Feature Film-Comedy
Rating: R
Release Date: 7-SEP-2004
Media Type: DVD

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1432 in DVD
• Brand: HACKMAN,GENE
• Model: 157
• Released on: 2002-07-09
• Rating: R (Restricted)
• Aspect ratio: 2.40:1
• Formats: Anamorphic, Closed-captioned, Color, DTS Surround Sound, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Subtitled in: English
• Number of discs: 2
• Running time: 110 minutes

Amazon.com
In a fitting follow-up to Rushmore, writer-director Wes Anderson and cowriter-actor Owen Wilson have crafted another comedic masterwork that ripples with inventive, richly emotional substance. Because of the all-star cast, hilarious dialogue, and oddball characters existing in their own, wholly original universe, it's easy to miss the depth and complexity of Anderson's brand of comedy. Here, it revolves around Royal Tenenbaum (Gene Hackman), the errant patriarch of a dysfunctional family of geniuses, including precocious playwright Margot (Gwyneth Paltrow), boyish financier and grieving widower Chas (Ben Stiller), and has-been tennis pro Richie (Luke Wilson). All were raised with supportive detachment by mother Etheline (Anjelica Huston), and all ache profoundly for a togetherness they never really had. The Tenenbaums reconcile somehow, but only after Anderson and Wilson (who costars as a loopy literary celebrity) put them through a compassionate series of quirky confrontations and rekindled affections. Not for every taste, but this is brilliant work from any perspective. --Jeff Shannon

From The New Yorker
After the brilliance of "Rushmore," his levelheaded look at the gifts of a misfit, where could Wes Anderson go next? In the event, he has broadened his scope to take in an entire family of misfits: the Tenenbaums, residing in their colorful town house like kooky modern leftovers from the age of Edith Wharton-an age of innocence indeed, despite the ill will that gusts around. The parents (Gene Hackman and Anjelica Huston) raised three overachieving children (Ben Stiller, Luke Wilson, and Gwyneth Paltrow) and then separated. We are here for the aftermath: the daughter's fading marriage to a bearded melancholic (Bill Murray), and other sunderings and patchings-up. The movie is packed tight with strong, if baffled, feelings, and yet we could be watching it through glass; Anderson specializes in the cool, astringent gaze, and for anyone sick of Hollywood heart-melters, this could be the antidote. With Owen Wilson, who co-wrote the film, and a meticulous Danny Glover. -Anthony Lane
Copyright © 2006 The New Yorker

Customer Reviews

Hated it.
I get it. It's trying to be a deadpan, quirky movie about a dysfunctional family. It just isn't NEARLY as good as the pretentious people out there would have you believe. Arrested Development does the same thing but with WAY more interesting characters and humour that never misses the mark.

the royal tenenbaums
I think that Wes Anderson has done a wonderful job directing this film. Initially upon the first viewing I wasn't a hundred percent in love with the movie, however this is the type of film that should be viewed more than once. Every time you watch it you learn something or catch some joke that you didn't notice before. This film does not use the typically blatant humor instead it is rye and witty in a sort of dark way. I think the manner in which the story is narrated and delivered is great not to mention the characters as well. This movie rejects the nuclear family and actually shows a family so dysfunctional that they are almost normal because they are so different just like any other family. I would also recommend the Darjeeling Limited and the Life Aquatic less so which are both also directed by Wes Anderson.

Entertaining but flawed and somehow superficial
After gaining attention with his quirky early films BOTTLE ROCKET and RUSHMORE, writer and director Wes Anderson was able to bring together a wide Hollywood cast for his ambitious 2001 effort THE ROYAL TENNEBAUMS. As the movie opens, we are shown the rise of the three children of the Tannebaum family, prodigies who excel in business, sports and literature respectively. The upbringing of these little geniuses is left to their mother Etheline (Angelica Huston) after their father Royal (Gene Hackman) leaves the family. We flashforward to the present day, where the family has fallen from glory. Chas Tennenbaum (Ben Stiller) is too crushed by the death of his wife to focus on business, Margot (Gwenyth Paltrow) hasn't written a play in years and sulks most of the day in the bathtub, and Richie (Luke Wilson) retired from tennis after mysterious blowing his last game. It is at this time that their father returns, and the reconciliation between the family members is the story of the film.

Wes Anderson retains his quirky sense of humour here. Though ostensibly set in the present day, the lives of the characters occasionally seem bound in traditions of a century ago, as when Royal has an Indian servant, and one of Etheline's suitors is a polar explorer, and this gives a certain charm to the picture. Another amusing Anderson touch is the sheer detail of the sets, with background items like newspaper clippings, portraits and bookshelf contents providing a feeling that these characters are fully formed and have a past. I think that the best part of the film may in fact be the supporting cast. Bill Murray, who plays Margot's husband, was to go on to play this type of jaded, unhappy middle-aged man in several films until it just stopped being fun anymore, but this early go at it is quite entertaining. Owen Wilson's character Eli Cash is hilarious, an author of Western novels who gets so caught up in the mythology of the Old West that he starts taking mescaline and descends into drug addiction. In some respects, Cash is similar to Wilson's character Hansel in Zoolander of the same year.

Unfortunately, I think the film is flawed. Anderson has certainly learnt much from earlier film-makers, especially the great European auteurs of the 1950s and 1960s, but there's too often a sense that the film is imitation instead of original insight. This sense of discomfort only increases on re-watching the film. I also find the soundtrack extremely incongruent with the rest of the production. While entertaining, and even memorable in several respects, THE ROYAL TENNENBAUMS leaves me with mixed feelings.