A pure product of the "isn't it ironic" generation, filmmaker Wes Anderson's sensibilities are steeped in received experience, absorbed through a pop-culture filter of movies, TV and comic books — though THE ROYAL TENENBAUMS suggests he at least read
The New Yorker as well. The resulting inclination towards archness, homage and precious observational humor produces too-clever-by-half films full of glittering details sprinkled over a fundamental hollowness. And more's the pity, because this melancholy film boldly entangles itself in the unruly vagaries of human experience most Hollywood pictures shun in favor of one-note emotional fixes: The thrill of victory, ...
Released:
2004
Rated:
R
Length:
118 mins