MYST #3: The Royal Tenenbaums

The Royal Tenenbaums is a comedy-drama about a family of three gifted children who excel early in life, only to experience disappointment and failure later in life when their father leaves them. Chas, Margot, and Richie are the three children. Chas is a math and business genius at a very young age, Margot is a great writer and is awarded a grant for a play she wrote in ninth grade and Richie is a tennis prodigy. The mother and father, Royal and Etheline, separate and it really affects the children. Twenty-two years later, Royal is kicked out of the hotel he is living in because he is out of money and he proposes a plan to get the family back together. Richie is following the world on a cruise ship following a breakdown; he is in love with his step-sister Margot. Chas becomes extremely overprotective of his two sons, Ari and Uzi, following the death of his wife Rachael. Margot is married to a neurologist named Raleigh St. Clair, whom she hides her smoking habit from. Etheline's accountant, Henry Sherman, proposes to her and in order to win back Etheline and the love of his kids, Royal devises a plan. Royal tells Etheline that he has stomach cancer and moves in with her, all of the kids come back as well. He does not really have stomach cancer he just fakes it and takes tic-tacs as his "medicine," After his lie is exposed, Royal realizes that he just wants Etheline to be happy so they get a divorce and all of the kids move on with their lives and become rather successful. Royal dies at the end from a heart attack.

The film is portrayed as if it were a book and it goes through chapters with narration. Make up and costume design play a large role in this film and both are used to describe and complete the characters. For example, Margot wears a lot of dark eye makeup and it shows that she is a dark and complex character.
The cinematography reveals the worlds that Anderson has imagined and carefully forms a foundation for characters and subtexts to be exposed and present meaning to the audience. Anamorphic widescreen framing, sweeping and smooth crane shots, and the seldom use of handheld camera is on display in this film.
Character development is one of the main focuses in this film as each character has his or her own backstory and specific life, personality, etc. You can see how each character changes from childhood to adulthood and how the separation of the parents affects the lives of each person.
This movie is both a comedy and a drama and even in some of the more darker scenes, there are still some comedic elements that can make you laugh. I thought Wes Anderson did a great job combining drama and comedy to create a very entertaining film.
I liked this movie and I would give it a 7.5/10. There were some really funny scenes, some sad scenes, and some weird scenes, but the movie stayed interesting and entertaining throughout.