I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

Not sure how, but this is easily one of the best movies all summer. Multiple levels of funny, never takes itself seriously, super colorful, and creative.

Great story, amazing characters, superb action, enthralling cinematography. Yes, this is something I am glad I spent money on.

"The Royal Tenenbaums" (2001) is a comedic drama about an emotionless, self-centered man named Royal Tenenbaum, played by Gene Hackman, as he tries to interject himself back into the lives of his abandoned family after finding out his wife Etheline, played by Anjelica Huston, is contemplating getting married to another man. Royal tells his wife, from which he is not divorced, that he has a terminal illness and only wishes to have his family back before his six weeks comes to an end. Etheline's fiancé, Henry Sherman played by Danny Glover, suspects there may be trickery afoot and a rollercoaster ensues. I am not usually of fan of redemption stories, but this is a great film. It reminded me that there is usually a Royal character in everyone's life. The director, Wes Anderson, does an outstanding job forcing the audience to care, from a distance, about this jerk of a man. The portrayal of the children in relations to Royal was magnificent. His two biological children Chas, played by Ben Stiller, and Ritchie, played by Luke Wilson, both capture an essence of Royal, but neither capture his characteristics as well as his adopted daughter Margot, played by Gwyneth Paltrow. As a viewer, you want and need to hate Royal, but Mr. Anderson, through his direction, keeps the audience from falling all the way over the fence. Overall, this is an astonishing film I only wish I would have seen earlier. This film sheds a different light on redemption storylines.

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

This film was a great disappointment, perhaps because I had watched The Grand Hotel Budapest first, a much better movie. The Royal Tennenbaums shows Anderson's talent and potential yet also the many flaws and growing pains that came with this early production. The main flaw however is not the acting nor the storytelling, but simply the film's lenght: instead of 110 minutes, this film should have lasted maximum 90 minutes! The redundant 20 minutes consist of unnecessary scenes, random filling or simply bad dialogues. Compared to Wes' later films this one does not live up to the expectations. Moreover, there is a very graphic, disturbing suicide attempt by one of the characters, which is completely out of tune with Anderson's fantasy, colorful style: the scene simply breaks the flow - if one can use that word, because the film never becomes really fluid like The Grand Hotel BUdapest does. It lacks rhythm annd grace.Interesting only for those who are die-hard Anderson fans and willing to be very forgiving for all the flaws. For all others, I recommend Anderson's later work, especially the animated films and his masterpiece so far, The Grand Budapest Hotel.6/10 (and I feel I'm still being too generous with my rating).

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.