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| Gene
Hackman, Anjelica Huston, Ben Stiller, Owen Wilson, Luke Wilson,
Gwyneth Paltrow, Bill Murray, Danny Glover |
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Anamorphic
widescreen |
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Dolby Digital
5.1 |
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DTS |
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Trailer(s) |
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Featurette(s) |
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Documentary |
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Audio commentary
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Deleted scenes
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Concept art
/ storyboards |
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Multi-angle
feature |
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[After being exposed and thrown out
of the house]
Royal (Gene Hackman): The past six days have been the best
six days of probably my whole life.
Narrator (Alec Baldwin): Immediately after making this statement,
Royal realized that it was true.
An estranged father returns to his
family of former child prodigies when he learns that his former
wife is about to be engaged.
 Only
very rarely does a new film come along that singlehandedly manages to revive
one's floundering faith in contemporary filmmaking. With his previous film
Rushmore, director Wes Anderson already displayed his strong visual
sensibility and his love for off-beat characters. In fact, his love for his
main characters appeared to be so strong in that feature that he tended to
lose sight of the narrative's main thrust. His latest feature The Royal
Tenenbaums has in it all the strong points seen in his previous film, but
none of its faults. It also sees Anderson reach a maturity and confidence of
style belying the fact that this is only the young director's third feature.
With the film's intentionally artificial series of highly stylized tableaux
and cast of endearing eccentrics, The Royal Tenenbaums occasionally
teeters on the verge of the ripe sentimentalism that made Amélie
such an unbearably saccharine experience. But there's a sharp edge to Anderson's humor
that continually keeps his film from indulging in coyness or romantic
flights of fancy. When the emotional pay-off finally arrives
near the film's end, it's as heartbreaking as it is unexpected. It's a fitting
climax to a unique and brilliant comedy, one of last year's few true masterpieces
and a film that makes one anxious to see what Anderson will do next.
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Near-identical double-disc releases
are available for Region 1 and Region 2. The Region 1 release, produced
by the Criterion Collection and distributed by Buena Vista, has
the added benefit of a DTS audio mix and an audio commentary track,
both absent on its Region 2 counterpart. The Region 2 release served
as a basis for this review.
The anamorphic widescreen image
is framed at an aspect ratio of approx. 2.40:1. The movie has a
stylized color pallette that drains the image of blues and greens
while saturating reds and oranges. This remarkable look has been
rednered in a flawless transfer that is often breathtaking in its
depth of color and level of detail.
The Dolby
Digital 5.1 sound mix is bright and crisp, with excellent separation
creating a broad soundstage that remains strongly focues on the
front channels. The rear speakers are put to ocasional but highly
effective use. The pleasure in this audio presentation lies more
in its clarity and subtlety than in thunderous effects or immersive
surround mix. The Region 1 release also carries a DTS audio track,
but the Dolby Digital 5.1 is more than up to the fairly light demands
of this simple but highly effective audio presentation.
Sadly, the director's audio commentary
that appeared on the Region 1 release has been dropped from the
Region 2 version, but at least all the extras on the second disc
have remained intact. The main inclusion here is the 25-minute documentary
'With the Director', a wholly fluff-free fly-on-the-wall documentary in which
we follow director Wes Anderson on various activities throughout the film's
shoot. It's a great feature that offers insight into Anderson's style and
working methods as well as entertainment value. Also included here is a
selection of cast interviews with Gene Hackman, Gwenyth Paltrow, Luke Wilson, Owen Wilson, Anjelica Huston,
Danny Glover, Ben Stiller and Bill Murray. The noisy video footage appears
to have been produced for EPK material, but thanks to the intelligen cast's
unusually articulate and varied remarks, these segments are for the most part
much better than one would expect.
A true curiosity here is The Peter Bradley Show, a straight-faced spoof
of the Charlie Rose Show, episodes of which have appeared by now on many DVD
releases, including the Criterion release of Anderson's previous feature
Rushmore. In it, a Charlie Rose look-alike talks with various bit
players from the film (one of whom never shows up) about what life is like
for a bit player. At 18 minutes, it's a little long for this kind of
po-faced tomfoolery, but it's still a fun treat for those with the right
mindset and sense of humor. The cut scenes are two very brief
scenes hardly totalling two minutes combined, but a nice inclusion nevertheless.
The final main supplement included on this disc is the scrapbook,
that features over 200 images ranging from storyboards and set designs
to on-set photography and prop design. A hugely interesting gallery that
deepens one's appreciation for the amount of work that went into the movie's
design. Finally, the theatrical trailer and two easily found Easter
Eggs with outtakes round out these fine extras. The
menu screens were painted by Eric Chase Anderson, the director's
brother who also did most of the paintings seen in the film.
Dan
Hassler-Forest
Reviewed:
December 19, 2002
Click
here for IMDB info on The
Royal Tenenbaums.
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