Classics: A Review of The Royal Tenenbaums By Lauren Ennis

The holidays are a time for food, fun, and the warm glow of family dysfunction. In keeping with the spirit of the season I’ll be turning this week’s spotlight on a film that features a clan who personify all that we love to hate and hate to admit that we love about family; The Royal Tenenbaums. Through its deft combination of sarcastic wit and heartfelt sentiment the film aptly portrays all the ways in which families can drive each other up the proverbial wall while capturing the love that continues to bring them to the holiday table. Eccentric, outrageous, and royally funny, The Royal Tenenbaums are one family who put the fun in family dysfunction.

I always wanted to be a Tenenbaum...

The story begins with an introduction to Royal (Gene Hackman) and Etheline (Angelica Houston) Tenenbaum and their precocious prodigy children Chas (Ben Stiller), Margot (Gwyneth Paltrow), and Ritchie (Luke Wilson). The family lead charmed lives as Chas becomes a business whiz, Ritchie sets off on the path to tennis stardom, and Margot becomes an award-winning playwright; all before reaching puberty. The children’s idyllic existence comes to a screeching halt, however, when their parents separate and Royal essentially disappears from their lives. Decades later, the siblings are caricatures of their former selves as Ritchie flounders in an existential crises, Chas becomes a neurotic overbearing parent, and Margot spends her days wallowing in the bathtub for hours to escape her loveless marriage. In the midst of this tumult recently evicted Royal returns to the family home claiming that he has six weeks left to live. Antics ensue as the family embarks upon a series of misadventures that ultimately teach them lessons in life, love, and what it means to be a Tenenbaum.

While family dysfunction has become common comedy fare in modern cinema, The Royal Tenenbaums sets itself apart through its original approach. The script touches upon a variety of sobering topics ranging from marital strife, to depression, to drug abuse and unfulfilled dreams, yet somehow manages to keep its tone deceptively light. Rather than focusing upon the trials that the characters are faced with, the film instead emphasizes the absurd yet relateable ways in which the characters cope with their struggles By including these real life topics without dwelling upon them, the script acknowledges the reality of life’s many difficulties and serves to remind viewers that they are not alone in facing these hardships.. The film also succeeds by maintaining a genuine emotional core even in the midst of its most outlandish hijinks.  Regardless of the many ways in which they annoy, alienate, and manipulate one another, the Tenenbaums continue to maintain an understanding of and allegiance to one another with the complexity of a real-life family. It is this sincerity that keeps the film grounded and helps viewers to invest in the characters, who despite their eccentricities are not so very different from us after all. As a result, the film relates a refreshing tale that is at once wildly unique and entirely universal.

The stuff of Kodak moments

The cast bring the wonderfully warped Tenenbaums to life through uniformly excellent performances. Ben Stiller is endlessly engaging in his frenetic turn as tightly-wound Chas. Luke Wilson makes for one of cinema’s most loveable losers as aimless yet admirable Ritchie. Gwyneth Paltrow is delightfully deadpan as the enigmatic Margot. Angelica Houston conveys warmth and wit in her performance as Etheline. Danny Glover’s turns in a nuanced performance as Etheline’s boyfriend/accountant Henry Sherman and makes his character an ideal foil to the eccentric Tenenbaums.   Owen Wilson is uproarious as the family’s tagalong neighbor turned affected bestselling author Eli Cash. Even in the midst of these masterful comic performances, Gene Hackman dominates the film as the gleefully amoral Royal.

Quirky, offbeat, and utterly original, are words that serve as apt descriptions for both The Royal Tenenbaums and its titular family. At once an uproarious portrait of familial chaos and a heartfelt tribute to the bonds which hold that chaos together, The Royal Tenenbaums is a family film befitting the modern family. Through its witty script expert performances the film brings the whimsical world of the Tenenbaums to life in all of its hilarity. For a hysterical start to your holiday season, pay a visit to The Royal Tenenbaums.