Benicio Del Toro, Mia Threapleton, and Michael Cera star in the latest from director Wes Anderson.
Just when it appears that Wes Anderson has painted himself into a corner, the filmmaker discovers a new melody to play.
Most recently, I found his Netflix collection of Roald Dahl adaptations (The Wonderful World of Henry Sugar and Three Others) to be borderline intolerable and felt assaulted by the incessant narrative device of telling everything, while also showing everything. Before I revisited that woeful anthology, I rewatched Fantastic Mr. Fox, which was quite wonderful, as well as Bottle Rocket, which still shows a lot of the promise that he delivered upon in his succeeding films.
So I was feeling a mixed bag of emotions before sitting down for an advance screening of Anderson’s latest, which eased my anxieties in its first few minutes, clearly making its dry comic approach clear with a clever series of images that made me laugh out loud.
Benicio Del Toro stars as Zsa-Zsa Korda, a wealthy industrialist who survives his sixth airplane crash in the opening scene. It is 1950, and Korda decides it is time to reconnect with his only daughter, pious and devout teenage novice Liesl (Mia Threapleton), and make her his one and only heir (on a trial basis).
Korda takes Liesl and his tudor Bjorn (Michael Cera) on a whirlwind trip throughout the (fictional) nation of Phoenicia in order to secure business arrangements. Rest assured that this is a red herring, a MacGuffin that, in and of itself, completely confused me.
No matter. It’s a plot device that allows Korda to get to know Liesl as they have a series of madcap adventures throughout the four corners of the emerging nation, meeting a series of fellow business tycoons — Riz Ahmed, Mathiu Almaric, Tom Hanks, Bryan Cranston, Jeffrey Wright, and so forth and so on — and a couple of relatives (Scarlett Johannsen, Benedict Cumberbatch) in search of business partners to help shoulder the financial load of a new enterprise. All the while, a mysterious consortium, led by Rupert Friend, tracks his every move in a shadowy room.
All the characters speak in a rapid, clipped fashion that Anderson has favored for years. In The Phoenician Scheme, the dialogue delivery moments are tempered by a wildly actionable camera that flies around the room like a drunken drone.
Wes Anderson epitomizes the phrase “your mileage may vary.” Those who are dedicated fans will find much to feast upon in his latest. Those who find his work to be cold and fussy, and are driven mad by his incessant stylistic choices, will do well for stay far away.
Those of us who are in the middle, who enjoy some of his films very much, and some not so much, are likely to very much enjoy The Phoenician Scheme, which is more decidedly and broadly comic, while retaining his insistence upon design perfection in the costuming and production details, bolstered by a great lead performance by Benicio Del Toro and a splendid introduction to Mia Threapleton.
The film opens Friday, June 6, in select area theaters. Visit the official site for locations and showtimes.
Dallas Film Now. 