THE ROYAL TENENBAUMS
2001

December 26, 2001
Neptune Theater
Seattle Washington

Quite good in its Wes Anderson way. Slow, with plenty of setups but no traditional punchlines. Not as good as RUSHMORE but trying just as hard. Ben Stiller breaks away from his bumbling screwup character and does a great job. The Danny Glover-Gene Hackman-Angelica Houston scenes are hilarious. The takes are long and the story divided into easy-to-follow chapters. Bill Murray is not used very much, but its better to want more of a character than to have seen too much of one.

The pacing is very slow and although I was enjoying it immensely, the warm theater and late hour made me doze off a couple of short times. The music is perfect as always.

7.4 Critical Consensus