THE ROYAL TENENBAUMS (2001) *** You have to applaud Bjorn Borg and Chris Kennedy Lawford for not suing. Actually Wes Anderson's gloriously offbeat (no beat?) script isn't mocking them nearly so much as the people who have put them on pedestals. Oh wait, that would be me. It's all in good fun anyway, or enough so that the wicked humor offsets any portion that isn't. It's an honour being mocked by such experts! Gene Hackman got well deserved glorious reviews for being a disbarred lawyer who takes his grandchildren shoplifting (shouldn't that be a celebrated lawyer for creating jobs? A little less personality and they would have made him a judge), but the thing rests squarely on the broad vocal chords of Alec Baldwin's narration, which seems to take up at least half of the time, and much of the best time at that. On screen Luke Wilson presides in an almost drooling manner over the funniest scenes as the Borg-like prodigy gone off the deep end (on a fishing trawler), but only over fierce competition from his crooked-nosed (from all the drugs?) brother Owen Wilson, bearded Bill Murray, Anjelica Huston and all dressed up in a green jacket Danny Glover. Ben Stiller is even good! I couldn't believe it, and his kids (Grant Rosenmeyer and Jonah Meyerson as Ari and Uzi) are that lightning mix of adorable and effective. Only Gwyneth Paltrow is the weakest link, and her incompetence adds nearly as much as it diminishes. In the end they're all winners just for being related, or surviving being related, or something like that. Tasteful musical selections (spectacular original classical offerings from Mark Mothersbaugh) including a rapid fire double that reminds that once upon a time the Rolling Stones were not only a great band, but a social force to be reckoned with. There's a thin line between greatness, dysfunctional, and toadying to the queen. Well at least between greatness and dysfunctional.
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