Monday, June 04, 2007

The Royal Tenenbaums


I never got to see this one because none of the video stores I frequented had it in stock. It's not your average person's idea of a comedy. Not to say that there is anything wrong with liking average comedy, just that this is isn't it.

One sentence summary: Amoral asshole dad tries to win back the favor of his genius family.

No, it doesn't sound like much with a one-sentence summary, but it's one of those movies that work on quirk and low-key dryness. I would have said that Bill Murray would have been excellent as Royal Tenenbaum except Gene Hackman did such a brilliant job. Is there anything quite as funny as an uninhibited, remorseless liar? Well, in this movie there isn't. Hackman as Tenenbaum steals every scene and makes you like him long before he tries to change his ways. Something about the fact that he never gives up, is never discouraged, reads spy-novels and encyclopedias.


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