The Royal Tenenbaums The Criterion Collection Deals on The Royal Tenenbaums

The Royal Tenenbaums (The Criterion Collection)

Category: (DVD)

32 new, starting at $11.01

64 used, starting at $4.48

Editorial Reviews

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

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

Customer Reviews

THE ROYAL BOREDOM

Reviewed by Scott K. Sokol, 2009-12-30

GOOD FORTUNE DID NOT SHINE ON ME THE NIGHT I SAW THIS MOVIE.
I CHOSE THIS FILM BECAUSE THE FILM I WANTED TO SEE WAS SOLD OUT.
AT LEAST I WAS ABLE TO ADD ANOTHER NOTCH IN MY BELT OF WORST
MOVIES EVER MADE. THE DIRECTOR AND THE CAST ASIDE, EXTRAORDINARY
FILMS ARE SUCH BECAUSE OF EXTRAORDINARY SCRIPTS, TO WIT:THE SWEET SMELL
OF SUCCESS. NO SUCH LUCK HERE. THE STORY WAS NEITHER COMEDIC,TRAGIC,
ENLIGHTENING, NOR INCISIVE. WITH THIS ALBATROSS OF A SCRIPT,
THE FILM'S FAILURE WAS PREDESTINED. I SELDOM WALK OUT OF A THEATER
DURING A FILM BUT THIS MONSTROSITY PROVIDED THE IMPETUS NEEDED TO
GO SCREAMING INTO THE NIGHT. IT TAKES A BRAVE PERSON
TO RETURN TO THE MOVIES AFTER THIS FAILED EFFORT.

Classic Wes Anderson

Reviewed by Paul, 2009-12-03

Recieved the day that he stated it would be here, came in great condition. Excellent movie.

top 10

Reviewed by Holland Crosby, 2009-10-06

Royal Tenenbaums has to be one of my favorite movies ever. This is one of those that always makes me laugh yet has a great drama tone to it too. I have watched it too many times to count and yet never get tired of it. I guess I am a Wes fan though because it seems people either hate or love his movies, and I love them!

Tell me a story. . .

Reviewed by Crabby Old Lady, 2009-08-26

Tell me a story...

The Royal Tenenbaums is a film that could have started out as a book, one of
those books, like Harry Potter, that has illustrations so that you can imagine the characters mostly for yourself, with a bit of help from the author.

As the story is not in fact from a book, I am going to say that it is like a snow globe, a tiny universe that makes sense if you press your nose up against the glass and squint.

Without the narrator (Alec Baldwin), you would be completely lost. Some people are completely lost anyway, given the number of factual errors that occur in the reviews printed here.

A brief summary: The story starts with all of the Tenenbaum children, who appear to be in their thirties, moving back to their mother's home, a castle-sized house located somewhere in New York. Explanations are skimpy for this at best. At the same time, across town, their father, estranged from the family for years, needs a free place to stay.

So, for the first time in 18 years, all of the Tenenbaums are together under one roof.

The mood of the film varies like the weather. Sometimes it is beautiful and sunny; sometimes it is grey and snowing.

Flashback to 18 years ago: Royal Tenenbaum (Gene Hackman) is a successful litigator, his wife, Etheline (Angelica Huston) an anthropologist, the three children are prodigies:
Ritchie (Luke Wilson), a tennis champion
Chas (Ben Stiller), a wizard at business
Adopted daughter Margot (Gweneth Paltrow), a successful playwright

The marriage breaks up, the children grow up but not well, Etheline dates but does not remarry, in fact, she and Royal are still not divorced.

What little action there is seems to be spurred by Etheline's deciding to get married again (to her accountant, played hesitantly by Danny Glover). Royal's competitive juices, so long dormant, are revived, and he stages a play for Etheline's love and sympathy by pretending to be dying of cancer (despite eating a lot of cheeseburgers).

The deus ex machina, that moves the story along to completion, is provided by a family friend called Eli Cash (Owen Wilson), who is presented as a drug-addicted novelist but who is really addicted to the Tenenbaum family.

In contrast to the narrator, who gives a perfectly flat delivery, the music functions as a barometer of affect for each scene.

Don't expect to get it all the first time; pick up this snow globe and give it another shake.

The Royal Tenebaums

Reviewed by Susan Hunter, 2009-08-05

Another "strange" movie for you collection- a must have. This movie has the younger version of all these actors, it's really a good movie about the Tenebaum family and the disfuction of family life.
Brilliant & entertaining.