Screenwriting duo Wes Anderson and Owen Wilson, (Bottle Rocket, 1996; Rushmore, 1998), team up again for The Royal Tenenbaums, a comedy/drama about a colorfully, dysfunctional family. The movie begins with the announcement that a member of the Tenenbaums is terminally ill and wishes to have one more chance with the family. The family unites (Gene Hackman as Royal O'Reilly Tenenbaum; Anjelica Huston as Etheline Ethel Tenenbaum; Ben Stiller as Chas Tenenbaum; Gwyneth Paltrow as Margot Helen Tenenbaum; and Luke Wilson as Richie Baumer Tenenbaum) and a series of hapless events unfold. The cast also includes the notable Owen Wilson (Elijah 'Eli' Cash), Danny Glover (Henry Sherman), Bill Murray (Raleigh St. Clair), and one well-spoken narrator, Alec Baldwin.

The movie explores family relationships: sons and their fathers, brothers and their sisters, children and their mothers. Divorce, drugs, theft, suicide, and death are also thrown in for good measure.

The Royal Tenenbaums is an excellent study of Wes Anderson's directorial talents. Nothing in the movie is clean. Everything displayed in background, every backdrop, even down to the props, is never congruent, never squared, never untouched. The furniture is always old and tattered; every wall is tattooed in spray paint; every ashtray is full; the air is smoke-filled; the skies are gray. The movie gives you an overriding sense of clutter within which the characters have been hedged. They are caught in their own surroundings, and somehow they have adapted, although poorly.

The sets display the quirks of the characters. Not wanting to ruin any of the movie's mystery, pay close attention to what takes places behind or around the characters. Stacks of pornographic videotapes, marijuana plants, ill-meaning posters, roving mice, and tin-wrapped cheeseburgers attach themselves as extensions of the movie's plot and of the characters themselves. They are well placed clues that may otherwise remain hidden to the untrained eye.

A trademark of Anderson's directorial style, the movie is paced somewhat slowly. Anderson's movies are explorations of characters in their unique environments, so don't expect eye-pulsing cuts and wipes. His movies leave you as quietly as they begin.

The Royal Tenenbaums also has a fine soundtrack, including songs from Paul Simon, the Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Nico, Bob Dylan, Elliot Smith, The Ramones, The Clash, The Velvet Underground, and the original music of Mark Mothersbaugh. The soundtrack is available from Hollywood Records.