I don’t think you’re an asshole, Royal. I think you’re just kind of a son of a bitch.
Danny Glover says this to the late Gene Hackman, as Royal Tenenbaum, in Wes Anderson’s The Royal Tenenbaums. Glover is the fiancé of Hackman’s former wife and it qualifies as a tender moment. When you watch all the comically awful things Royal has done to his wife and children over the years, you’ll understand why son-of-a-bitch is the best you could say about him.
In Anderson’s newest film, The Phoenician Scheme, we find Benicio del Toro in a similar fatherly journey. Del Toro plays Zsa-Zsa Korda, a wealthy industrialist and plucky survivor of multiple assassination attempts. After the most recent near-death experience, he decides to reconcile with his only daughter, Sister Liesl, played by Mia Threapleton. As in The Royal Tenenbaums, there’s a lot to reconcile. He had sent Liesl to a convent at the age of 5, and may have killed her mother.
Count me in anytime Wes Anderson releases a new film. There’s his storytelling like a 21st century fairy tale. The brilliant way he shoots a scene, so that you can pause at any frame and you have a perfect still. And the characters! Bryan Cranston as part-time financier, part-time pickup basketball ringer who Zsa-Zsa need money from. Michael Sera as Zsa-Zsa’s assistant/entomologist/double-agent. Del Toro, as Zsa-Zsa, living with his 9 sons who roam his Italian palazzo like unwanted cats.
Eventually, Zsa-Zsa reconciles with his ten children. When I’m in the mood for a comedy, I want redemption, even for the scoundrels.