The Royal TenenbaumsThe symmetric world and the camera work has always been the maker's signature that lures in the audience through its stunning visuals and pleasingly light and breezy tone of the feature; contradict to its premise. As mentioned, it is rich on such technical aspects like costume design and cinematography but is short on sound department. Owen Wilson and Wes Anderson; the screenwriters, has done an excellent work on offering concrete material that is flat out hilarious and keeps the audience engaged where no one can defy that he or she isn't entertained. Wes Anderson; the director, as always, is excellent in his work on execution and the primary reason it always works is his awareness of the vision that he wishes to implement on screen. The performance is of course, amazingly done because of such a great cast especially Ben Stiller, Owen Wilson, Gwyneth Paltrow and Gene Hackman. The only minor conflict in here, is that the material hits on screen all together and offers very little time to breathe to the audience which can be off putting at times. The Royal Tenenbaums is a family drama enriching into a cathartic release where even though there isn't much to connect to the world depicted in here, it certainly is supremely entertaining.

Short and Simple Review by WubsTheFadgerFirst off, Wes Anderson has created another whimsical, colorful, and plain out weird film once again. The story is told fluently and gracefully introduces us to the colorful characters and their personalities. The story is very funny and at time extremely touching.The acting is great. Gene Hackman, Anjelica Huston, Ben Stiller, Gwyneth Paltrow, Luke Wilson, Owen Wilson, Bill Murray, Danny Glover, Seymour Cassel, Kumar Pallana, and Alec Baldwin all perform very well.The pacing is a little slow in the middle but overall, it is consistently fast. The runtime is a little overlong.Pros: Whimsical, funny, and touching story, great acting, and a great endingCons: Some slow pacing and an overlong runtimeOverall Rating: 8.2

The story of the slightly off-kilter and zany Tenenbaums never fails to bring a smile on my face. Not only is this film very visually satisfying and beautiful but, it is genuine and uplifting, too. Anjelica Huston is radiant (as usual) and Owen Wilson's strange wannabe Tenenbaum character truly kept me on my toes. While this review may sound a little on the a** kissing side, I do genuinely feel that this movie is more than just an Anderson-loving hipster's bonanza. It is movie that tells a unique story and remains one of my favorites of all time. There is a reason it is on the 1001 Movies to See Before You Die list!!!

It seems to be generally agreed that this is Wes Anderson's staple film, or perhaps his mission statement as far as movies he wanted to create: idiosyncratic, campy tales about complex relationships being told in often witty and blunt dialogue. And no one can forget the Wes Anderson tells - symmetry, pastel or earthy color schemes, and Bill Murray. Even though the way this story is told would never happen in real life (it felt fitting that the "actual story" being told was through a book), it still feels incredibly human and almost believable in an odd way. Royal Tenenbaum (Gene Hackman) almost feels like the hero of a classic Greek tragedy, except the movie focuses more on gathering yourself the day, or in this case, the two decades after. Royal's ex-wife (Anjelica Huston), his two sons (Ben Stiller and Luke Wilson), his adopted daughter (Gwyneth Paltrow), and his children's friend from across the street (Owen Wilson) have all fallen on hard times (meltdowns, depression, drug use) decades after the family drifted apart. Royal attempts to reconnect with his family initially to keep his distanced wife from remarrying a tax advisor (Donny Glover), but throughout the film, he finds the best days of his life with his long-lost family. The group catches up with varying success and share in each other's mutual sadness. There are many beautiful and crushing scenes, heightened by the Wes Anderson style, and the story explores several different feelings and tones. I think the only real problem is that even though every character is written well and intricate in their own special way, and I believe each has an arc as well, there are so many people and histories to keep track of, it becomes a little bit of a nuisance. And the film struggles to juggle all these characters and all of this information in a balanced way; they each kind of have their moment and disappear for a while and then resurface briefly. And this makes the telling of the story a little choppy and confusing at points because you're always wondering who someone is or why they are acting the way they are until you remember through context clues. But if it weren't chosen to have this movie told through a book, I think it might have been much more noticeable. Of Anderson's films that I have seen, even though it is not my favorite by him, I'd say it's the best introduction to one of the best filmmakers in the industry right now.