For instance, I saw The Big Lebowski for the first time when I was doped up following my wisdom teeth surgery (I laughed so hard blood trickled out the side of my mouth). I saw Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind in theaters right after a break up -- and it really hung true.
The Royal Tenenbaums arrived during the peak of my angst-ridden days in college, before I could get a girlfriend and as my cinematic tastes were really starting to come into their own.
I'd seen Rushmore in theaters and had been a big fan, but that was nothing compared to the eye-popping delight Tenenbaums was. Wes Anderson finally had a budget, and it showed.
Today, the movie plays a lot like other Anderson movies -- which have become so tonally similar as to inspire loving if albeit note-perfect parodies like Saturday Night's Live's genius spoof.
Still, Anderson's talent and knack for wringing emotion out of his meticulously crafted characters and sets is undeniable, and The Royal Tenenbaums remains my favorite film he's made to date.
For me, it starts with the brilliant casting of a never-better Gene Hackman in the lead role. He gives a bombastic, gleeful performance as a "son of a bitch" who has lied and cheated his way through life, and yet can't help but be endearing. Hackman is not an obvious Anderson-style performer, but that tension enlivens the material and keeps it from being too self consciously quirky.
Based on the director's commentary, I have a sneaking suspicion that the Tenenbaum patriarch is supposed to have some significant parallels with Anderson's own father -- and in many ways this feels like a very personal film for him.
It was certainly a personal film for me when I saw it. I saw bits of myself in all the Tenenbaum children (played, in some of their best roles ever, by Gwenyth Paltrow, Ben Stiller, and Luke Wilson). They're all innately bright, talented people who nevertheless seem to have squandered their gifts and are hamstrung by their own anxiety or neurosis.
Back in 2001, when this film was released, I myself was at a similar crossroads. I felt out of place and insecure and unlovable. When I saw The Royal Tenenbaums on the big screen I saw characters I could relate to and fall in love with. And I remember feeling like during it's slow motion final shot as the characters exit a graveyard, that I was saying goodbye to some close friends.
I revisited the film last night because my girlfriend miraculously had never seen it. I was worried it wouldn't work as well as it used to for me. But it still did.
The soundtrack, the pans, the sets -- all serve the story and some truly original creations. I especially love Owen Wilson's sort of Cormac McCarthy like author, Eli Cash, who dreams of being a Tenenbaum and has a bizarre on-air meltdown during a television interview.
There is a shot I will always remember. Luke Wilson's character is trying to stage something akin to an intervention to get Cash off drugs. While in the midst of trying to deny he has a problem the Cash character crosses to the other side of the room and a stack of pornography is clearly present. Each one of them appears to be a African-American themed porn. This detail is never explained, but the fact that it's there has always amused me endlessly and left me in awe of Anderson's truly awesome mind.
The Royal Tenenbaums is both sweet and sentimental but it also has a real darkness and ambiguity to it. Royal's character probably becomes a better guy by the end of the film but he never really changes. I am a better adjusted person that I was 14 years ago, at least I think I am, but some of the same self-hatred I had back then hangs like a shadow over everything I do.
I'm not even entirely sure what all this means -- but I appreciate the irony.
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