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The Royal Tenenbaums Details

2001 Certificate 15
  • Rated:
  • 70
  • from 22,112 members

In their youth, the Tenenbaums--an eccentric New York family--were extraordinary. They were all geniuses. Royal Tenenbaum (Gene Hackman) was a successful litigator. His wife Etheline (Angelica Huston) raised their children to be ambitious, entrepreneurial, and creative--then published an acclaimed book about her child-rearing .. Read more

Starring Anjelica Huston, Gene Hackman, Ben Stiller, Gwyneth Paltrow
Director Wes Anderson
Genres Comedy

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The Royal Tenenbaums

In their youth, the Tenenbaums--an eccentric New York family--were extraordinary. They were all geniuses. Royal Tenenbaum (Gene Hackman) was a successful litigator. His wife Etheline (Angelica Huston) raised their children to be ambitious, entrepreneurial, and creative--then published an acclaimed book about her child-rearing techniques. Adopted daughter Margot (Gwyneth Paltrow) was a gifted playwright. Son Chas (Ben Stiller) was a masterful businessman with a taste for real estate. And the other son, Richie (Luke Wilson), was a natural tennis champ. However, when Royal packed up his life and left his wife and his family in a cloud of betrayal, everything fell apart. Twenty years later, the Tenenbaums are a dejected and alienated bunch, each having found that their early successes did not carry over into adulthood. When washed-up Royal learns that his distant wife Etheline, who has become an archaeologist, may remarry, he feigns illness as an excuse to reunite with his estranged family.
From Wes Anderson, director of RUSHMORE, this film is full of quirky comedy that will have audiences reeling and reflecting simultaneously. The brilliant script is impeccable with choppy, intentionally awkward language delivered with dry wit by the well-appointed (almost too good to be true) cast. Dramatic sets are emphasized by the film's masterful orchestration of scene changes and chapter separations. The photography beautifully captures a faded, vintage 1980s New York. And the eclectic soundtrack features much-loved tunes by Nico, The Velvet Underground, The Clash, and the Vince Guaraldi Trio.

Starring Anjelica Huston, Gene Hackman, Ben Stiller, Gwyneth Paltrow, Owen Wilson, Luke Wilson, Danny Glover, Bill Murray
Director Wes Anderson
Studio WALT DISNEY STUDIOS HOME ENTERTAINMENT
Run time DVD: 1 hr 48 mins
Certificate Certificate 15
Genres Comedy
Language DVD: English
Released DVD: 02 Dec 2002
Production year: 2001
Format DVD

The Royal Tenenbaums (2001)

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  • Critics' reviews (6) of The Royal Tenenbaums

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  • 5 stars out of 5

    Produced and directed by the hugely talented Wes Anderson and co-written with actor and regular collaborator Owen Wilson, this is the much-anticipated follow-up to Rushmore, one of the quirkier American films of the late 1990s. The Royal Tenenbaums is no less quirky. It's a story about a gifted, but dysfunctional, New York family that is reunited when estranged patriarch Gene Hackman feigns terminal illness. An ambitiously original ensemble comedy, it is related in an episodic, storybook format with off-screen narration from Alec Baldwin. This stylised presentation suggests that the interlocking subplots involving the various Tenenbaums — Gwyneth Paltrow's foundering marriage to Bill Murray; Ben Stiller's paranoia; Luke Wilson's deepening depression — will be resolved in a detached fashion, without warmth or the audience's empathy. That is not so. As the narrative builds, the atmosphere thaws and something like poetry unfolds. Immaculately written and brilliantly performed (with Hackman, especially, in magnificent form), this extraordinary fable restores one's faith in American cinema.

    • Radio Times
  • "...The rivalry between the three siblings is particularly well caught....The split-second connections, meanwhile, are intensely moving....The tracks here knead the emotion into your brain and become inseparable from it..."

    • Sight and Sound
  • Most helpful member's review of The Royal Tenenbaums

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  • 56 out of 64 people found this review helpful

    Rated - 1 star

    Yawwwwwwwn

    I rarely abandon films half way through and to my credit I stuck this one out. Time seemed to slow down. I began to despair ... 109 minutes have never passed so slowly. Please kill me, I thought. Wasn't funny. Really wasn't.

  • Most recent members' review of The Royal Tenenbaums

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  • 2 out of 2 people found this review helpful

    Rated - 5 stars

    Wickedly funny

    I have no idea why it took me so long to get around to seeing this movie, all I know is that I'm extremely glad that I eventually did. The Royal Tenenbaums is a trully unique, intelligent, touching, and wickedly funny film. I haven't stopped smiling since the end credits faded to black thirty minutes ago. Repeat viewings are guaranteed in abundance.

    • jjgittes
      • jjgittes from Penrith
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Rating breakdown

22,112 Member ratings
  • 100
2,759
  • 90
2,260
  • 80
4,036
  • 70
3,438
  • 60
3,140
  • 50
1,983
  • 40
1,559
  • 30
1,177
  • 20
1,130
  • 10
630

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    • In their youth, the Tenenbaums--an eccentric New York family--were extraordinary. They were all geniuses. Royal Tenenbaum (Gene Hackman) was a successful litigator. His wife Etheline (Angelica Huston)...