The Royal Tenenbaums (2001)

Directed by

Wes Anderson

Genre

comedy film, comedy drama

Country

United States

Runtime

1h 48m

Rated

R

Rating

7.5 of 10 from 5,067 voters

Elsewhere

IMDb

How it feels

A family of child prodigies grows up to be adults who are stuck and unhappy. Their estranged father returns home claiming to be dying, and tries to fix his broken relationships with his wife and children.

wrymelancholicoffbeatquirkyintimatebittersweetslow-burndeadpannostalgic

What happens

The Royal Tenenbaums is a 2001 American black comedy-drama film directed by Wes Anderson and co-written by him and Owen Wilson. It stars Danny Glover, Gene Hackman, Anjelica Huston, Bill Murray, Gwyneth Paltrow, Ben Stiller, Luke Wilson, and Owen Wilson. Ostensibly based on a nonexistent novel, and told with a narrative influenced by the writing of J. D. Salinger, it follows the lives of three gifted siblings who experience great success in youth, and even greater disappointment and failure in adulthood. The children's eccentric father, Royal Tenenbaum (Hackman), leaves them in their adolescent years and returns to them after they have grown, claiming that he has a terminal illness. He works on reconciling with his children and wife (Huston), from whom he has been separated, but not divorced. With a variety of influences, including Louis Malle's 1963 film The Fire Within and Orson Welles's 1942 film The Magnificent Ambersons, the story involves themes of the dysfunctional family, lost greatness, and redemption. An absurdist and ironic sense of humor pervades the film, which features a soundtrack subsequently released in two albums. The Royal Tenenbaums was shot in and around New York City, including a house in Harlem used for the Tenenbaum residence. The filmmakers went to efforts to distinguish the film's backgrounds from a recognizable New York, with fashions and sets combining the appearances of different time periods. After debuting at the New York Film Festival, The Royal Tenenbaums received positive reviews from critics and was Anderson's most financially successful film until 2014's The Grand Budapest Hotel. Hackman won a Golden Globe for Best Actor - Musical or Comedy for his performance at the 59th Golden Globe Awards, and Anderson and Wilson were nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay at the 74th Academy Awards. In 2016, it was included in BBC's 100 Greatest Films of the 21st Century. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

Trailer

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