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| Special Features: |
DTS audio track
Commentary by director Wes Anderson
Theatrical trailer(s)
New widescreen digital transfer, supervised by director Wes Anderson
With the Filmmaker: Portraits by Albert Maysles, featuring Wes Anderson
Exclusive video interviews and behind-the-scenes footage of Gene Hackman, Anjelica Huston, Ben Stiller, Gwyneth Paltrow, Luke Wilson, Owen Wilson, Bill Murray, and Danny Glover
Outtakes
The Peter Bradley Show, featuring interviews with additional cast members
The Art of the Movie: Young Richie's murals and paintings, still photographs by set photographer James Hamilton, book and magazine covers, Studio 360 radio segment on painter Miguel Calderón, and storyboards
Collectible insert including Eric Anderson's drawings |
| Video Format: |
Anamorphic Widescreen (2.35:1)
[SS-SL]
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| Languages: |
English (DTS)
English (Dolby Digital 5.1)
English (Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround)
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| Subtitles: |
English
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| Captions: |
Yes
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| Casing: |
2-Disc Keep Case
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Without a doubt the most inventive comedy of 1998, Wes Anderson’s “Rushmore” was shamefully was overlooked by the Academy Awards. In his latest, “The Royal Tenenbaums,” Anderson has remarkably sharpened his filmmaking skills in a masterful comedy that is both more refined and more entertaining than his two previous films “Bottle Rocket” and “Rushmore.”
Co-written by Anderson and his writing partner, actor Owen Wilson – they also penned both “Bottle Rocket” and “Rushmore” together – “The Royal Tenenbaums” documents New York’s and possibly the world’s most eccentric and dysfunctional family. The Tenenbaums are a family of geniuses, and while the three children were growing up, an icon of unrivaled success. Each member exceptionally gifted in a particular skill as teens; Chas (Ben Stiller) was schooled in the ways of real estate and international finance, Margot (Gwyneth Paltrow) an award-winning playwright, and Richie (Luke Wilson) a three-time U.S. National champion tennis player. But family life, after the split up of their parents Royal and Etheline (Gene Hackman and Anjelica Huston), was such a failure that it left each of the three children crippled in failure and betrayal, unable to deal with the challenges of adulthood.
Fast forward to the present. Chas, a recent widower with two young sons, has become totally obsessed with the safety of his kids. Paranoid that disaster will strike at any time, he constantly runs them through emergency evacuation drills -- always dressed in red jumpsuits to maximize speed and efficiency. Margot, after a torrent of desperate relationships with everyone from a reggae star to a cab driver, is a clinically depressed closet smoker who hasn’t written since her childhood, and is unhappily married to eclectic psychologist Randy St. Claire (Bill Murray). Richie, the youngest Tenenbaum, after experiencing a psychological breakdown on the tennis court, isolated himself from the world, traveling the seas aboard an ocean liner. Mother Etheline is an archeologist with many suitors, and father Royal has been blacklisted from the family as most of this is considered his fault. Broke and desperate to reunite the family after seventeen years of separation for seemingly selfish motives, Royal decides to fake a terminal illness, bringing the family back together again for one last hurrah.
The film revolves around the family reunion staged by the wickedly self-absorbed Royal, played to utter perfection by Gene Hackman. In fact, it’s one of the best performances of his entire career. And if it seems like the role of Royal was written specifically for him, it’s because it was. In one hilarious montage sequence, he takes Chas’s two young children out for some fun, betting on dog fights, darting in front of oncoming traffic and water ballooning taxi cabs. He’s a con-man, his antics occasionally outrageous and will have you gasping with laughter, but behind it all there’s a hint of tenderness and decency.
The film is plays out like a book, with Alec Baldwin as the narrator leading the audience through the
story, literally divided into chapters. The characters are eccentric, almost larger-than-life, but
the dialogue is sharp and witty, and the performances wonderfully understated. Stiller, Paltrow,
Luke Wilson, and Huston all give wonderful performances that resonate with an emotional presence
and desperation unparalleled in a comic feature. The humor is wacky yet controlled, and thanks to
the incredible direction of Anderson, never loses its focus. At its heart “The Royal Tenenbaums”
is a modern day fairy tale, albeit one that includes such adult themes as incest, suicide and
neuroticism. With gorgeously textured sets and cinematography, it’s Anderson’s idealized vision
of New York; a beautiful mixture of romantic fiction and depressing reality that is bursting with
emotion. "The Royal Tenenbaums" is simply a film about family. The one we all love (and sometimes hate),
even if we can’t put a finger on why.
Easily one of the best films of 2001, again Wes Anderson and Co. were overlooked by the Academy Awards. Like "Rushmore" before it, "The Royal Tenenbaums" gets Criterion treatment here, and rightfully so.
Though a two-disc set, there aren't a whole lot of extra features to choose from, and all of them (with the exception of Anderson's commentary track) are pretty light. The inclusion of a DTS 5.1 track likely forced the second disc, but on the good side, audio and video quality are superb.
Picture Quality: 9/10
“The Royal Tenenbaums” sports a very nice theatrical-faithful 2.40:1 anamorphic widescreen video transfer. The video is quite crisp, and the vibrant colors Anderson cloaks his characters in show up nicely. There are a couple of sequences that appear a bit more muted than the film's theatrical release, but overall a superb job.
Sound Quality: 9/10
The DVD comes with three audio tracks: Dolby Digital 5.1 English, DD 2.0 surround English, or DTS 5.1 English. For the most part, music provides much of the robustness of the sound design. There are only a handful of moments with surround effects as the audio mix leans heavily towards the front. The difference between the Dolby Digital 5.1 and DTS 5.1 track are insignificant here, given the film's dialogue heavy and not-very-intensive style, which makes you wonder why one was included in the first place.
Menu: 10/10
The menu uses artwork (I'm assuming) by Eric Anderson, Wes Anderson's brother who contributed to most of the artwork seen throughout the film and in the crew's script folder. It's one of the more creative menus I've seen, and obvious much time was spent in creating it. Easy to navigate, great work.
Easter Eggs:
When the Main Menu on Disc 2 is displayed, you’ll notice that there’s an arrow pointing to Criterion’s banner at the top of the monitor. Clicking on that arrow will access a short clip of Ben Stiller, breaking out of character, welcoming you to the DVD experience of “The Royal Tenenbaums”.
Inside the "Scrapbook" feature of the supplemental disc 2, there are two paintings on the wall without labels, and a little mouse in the bottom left corner, that can all be clicked upon.
Clicking on the one with flames shows an outtake where Angelica Huston's wig catches fire from a birthday cake she's holding
Clicking on the picture of the guy pulls up home video footage of a crew party where Kumar Pallana (who plays Pagoda), does some crazy spinning plate trick.
Clicking on the mouse in the bottom left pulls up footage of Bill Murray making a joke about the "hybrid" mice.
Extra Features: 7/10
The Criterion Collection’s DVD release of the film is a 2-disc set. Disc 1 contains the film along with an audio commentary, and Disc 2 contains the remainder of the supplements.
Disc 1:
The only extra on Disc 1 is an audio commentary by Wes Anderson. As you'd expect (or if you're heard the commentary track on "Rushmore" Criterion), Wes Anderson is extremely talkative and lively. His personality reminds me in many ways of a younger Woody Allen, both neurotic and brilliant. The commentary track is fairly informative, but nothing special. One funny noteable is his honesty about how they created dalmation mice. Anderson simply states that they used Sharpie markers, illegally he presumes, to dot the unsuspecting rodents.
Disc 2:
“With the Filmmaker: Portraits by Albert Maysles” is a kind of video diary of the production. A video camera follows the filmmakers around the set as the movie goes through pre-production, production, and post-production phases.
There are video interviews and behind-the-scenes footage of Gene Hackman, Angelica Huston, Ben Stiller, Gwyneth Paltrow, Luke Wilson, Owen Wilson, Bill Murray, and Danny Glover. Bill Murray's interview is easily the funniest of the bunch.
“The Peter Bradley Show” is the strangest feature included, and is presumably an inside joke/spoof of "The Charlie Rose Show." Peter Bradley is in fact a character in the film itself, one of Gwyneth Paltrow's many flings. Basically, it’s a “talk show” interview with people who’ve appeared in Wes Anderson’s movies, and they’re all extras with one or two lines of dialogue. The Peter Bradley character is hilarious in the interview, acting totally unprepared for the show, not even knowing whether Anderson's previous film was "Bottlerocket" or "Bottlerockets."
In “The Art of the Movie”, you’ll find a plethora of stills galleries. You can peruse young Richie’s murals and paintings (he always wanted to be a painter, not a tennis player, and he drew a ton of portraits of Margot), still photographs by set photographer James Hamilton, book and magazine covers as seen in the movie, and storyboards. There’s also a “Studio 360” radio segment on painter Miguel Calderon, whose works figure prominently in Eli Cash’s apartment. There are also three easter eggs hidden in the menu here.
The DVD set includes two inserts. One includes an essay about the film, film production credits, DVD production credits, and chapter listings. The other insert includes artwork of the mansion schematics and character concepts from Eric Anderson, Wes's brother.
The Final Word:
I will continue to sing the praises of Wes Anderson and Owen Wilson until I'm blue in the face. As a writing tandem, they bring a unique style that is an amalgamation of the best writers and filmmakers in history, adding their own penchant for the eccentric. Anderson's craft as a director continues to get better as well, and made "The Royal Tenenbaums" one of my top 3 films of 2001. The Criterion treatment is not on par with their best (in terms of extra features), but for fans of superb filmmaking, there's no better addition for the film library.
Stephen Wong
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