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When Genius Loses Its Glitter By Robert E. Martin Click the pic for the official movie site! If any term became a catchphrase in the 1980s & '90s to describe all variety of erratic and destructive behaviors within a family, dysfunctional would be the 'word'. And what we've learned from psychologists (and experience) is that perfectly happy and functional families can be 'dysfunctional' and not even realize it. Perhaps no writer better articulated the fine line between genius and malaise within a modern American family as J.D. Salinger did. Known best for Catcher in the Rye, Salinger wrote a series of books and short stories about the fictional Glass family, which chronicled the trials & tribulations of its youngest members, two whiz kids named Franny & Zooey, along with the tortured and brilliant mind if its eldest sibling, Seymore. Of course, nowadays, College literature students aren't even required to read Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby, so the majority of America is unfamiliar with the notion of constructing an epic around a dysfunctional family of brilliant, albeit unhappy souls. But this is exactly what the film The Royal Tenenbaums is all about. Director Wes Anderson purposely makes the setting of this film elusive so that it cannot be pigeonholed, and the sterling ensemble cast deftly brings life to each of their roles. Royal Tenenbaum (played by Gene Hackman) is the family patriarch and his estranged wife, Etheline (Angelica Huston) are joined by their sons, Chaz (Ben Stiller) who plays a widowed tycoon in a blood-red tracksuit, and Richie (Luke Wilson) who is dumbfounded with discontent and in love with his adopted sister, Margot (played by Gwyneth Paltrow). Most good films have a yin-and-yang dynamic to them, and in The Royal Tenenbaums, director Anderson instills wisdom and aptitude to the children, whereas Hackman allows Royal to breeze through life like a kid on rollerskates flying over the hill of maturity. Added to the hook is the fact that each of the Tenenbaums were a prodigy: Margot an ex-playwright; Richie an ex-tennis champ; Chas, a real estate whiz in his early teens. Consequently, the humor flows around the contours of this collection of has-beens whose 'best times' have faded. Paltrow is particularly effective, with eyes rich in mascara and a fur coat that reflect an inner fire that has melted away into a garish exterior. And Hackman's character effectively races through life like a brilliant kid, especially because all he is trying to do is smuggle a little love. The film has no real climax, no thunderbolt of salvation, and the death at the end is no more unexpected than rainfall on the casket. But perhaps the best way to appreciate this movie is to go back and re-read Salinger to glean a deeper understanding an appreciation for wit and fatality that spark into muted gleams of quiet madness. Grade: B+
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