The Royal Tenenbaums

Wes Anderson is the guy. Symmetry is his best friend.

The Royal Tenenbaums is about a father who died tragically rescuing his family from the wreckage of a destroyed sinking battleship. Well, not exactly. That italicized line is Royal’s epitaph (proofread by Etheline Tenenbaum, as he requested). But in a sense that is the gist of the movie where alienated Royal Tenenbaum tries to save his family, his marriage, and ultimately his personal dilemmas by pulling the best game plan he could think of, which is death. He got six weeks left (which is not true) and tells the family, especially Etheline, that he wants to catch up. A fake sickness, a fake upcoming death, a fake doctor, the same Royal with his cheeseburger—everything is set.

"This is my daughter, Margot, adopted."

The bad father catches up

You see, Royal is not a good father (not with Richie). He only has to attend Margot’s birthday party to prove it. He only has to say “This is Margot, adopted.” He only has to steal Chas’ savings when he was fourteen. The movie shows a patriarchal society with bad fathers. Etheline was left to raise the children and she did well in doing so.

Royal represents every bad father in every family; the typical guy who prioritizes his personal pursuits over the well-being of his family; the typical insensitive male human; the typical you-only-live-once-to-spend-time-with-family. His own son filed a legal suit against him and he lost (to his own son; imagine the hate of that son to push through these means).

Family of geniuses

He meets with his children; prodigies of their early years that lost their respective genius over a decade of adulthood, not recognizing that they are growing up.

Chas Tenenbaum (the son we’re talking about earlier) has been an expert on international finance stock exchange since he was a kid. Aside from being so good at money and business, he is an over-protective father. He became obsessed about his children’s safety after his wife’s death (we’re talking about waking up the kids at two in the morning shouting “Fire! Fire!” with a timer). He hated his father with the weight of a decade or more. Chas represents a child deprived of fatherly presence. This deprivation can be reflected on how he treats his own kids.

Margot Tenenbaum (the ‘adopted’) is the sophisticated, unattached, unemotional woman of class. She has been secretive over the years and was successful in hiding her smoking addiction for seventeen years. She also hid the fact that she was married to a random guy and had affairs with many other random guys, including Eli Cash, Richie’s best friend. And she’s a successful playwright.

Richie Tenenbaum is a tennis prodigy and an artist (who painted only Margot’s portraits and failed to develop this artistic attempt). He is in love with Margot and had a nervous breakdown during a tennis championship after hearing the news of Margot’s engagement with Raleigh St. Claire. Royal often brought him to dog fights excluding the other two Tenenbaums.

Representations

Men are portrayed as the traditional patriarchal. The masculine presence in the movie is overwhelming, shadowing the femininity of the other characters (Margot and Etheline). The portrayal of Royal as a father is true to many family cases. Etheline’s character as a mother is true in many ways, too. Mothers put priority on their children. Etheline had the appeal of a caring mother all throughout the film but was somehow redirected to her romantic interest with Henry Sherman (her accountant, and the reason why Royal has to put up such a plan to salvage their marriage).

"Is it dark?"

The Royal Tenenbaums is a dramedy of ironic humor and dry laughs. Many would find Anderson’s style as eccentric and unconventional but how it added the overall appeal in the movie is a plus.