Always a hit or miss with me. But it is still a joy to watch.
A ne’er-do-well businessman faces off constant assassination while establishing a trans-continental transportation empire.
Director Wes Anderson returns for another unorthodox experience, having given us The Grand Budapest Hotel, Asteroid City, and more. Starring Benicio Del Toro, Mia Threapleton and Michael Cera. Including some familiar faces, Bill Murray, Willem Dafoe, and Scarlett Johansson. The Phoenician Scheme is, as with a lot of Anderson’s movies, uncanny and strange, funny but slightly alienating.
How does this one iron out?
Set in the 1950s, the film opens with a old-timey summary for Zsa-Zsa Korda (Del Toro) a businessman who invents unusual plans and investments. These decisions are regularly at odds with the government’s stance or future plans, making him a lifelong menace. As a result, Korda is constantly under threat of assassination. But bafflingly, he has a habit of surviving. Including more than one plane crash. This story follows him in a final business deal. He has brought his estranged daughter (Threapleton) into the fold so she might inherit his fortunes, as well as a new assistant (Cera). Together they travel across the world to settle various deals.
Help yourself to a hand grenade.
Wes Anderson is a unique director. His style of movie making is as unique and identifiable as Tarantino. More than Spielberg. You can see a few seconds of an Anderson film and know he is the director. Many reviews can go on and on about the use of static framing, symmetric set design and shot composition. Of the music choice, the often stilted performances and glib dialogue. It remains persistent across his films now, and The Phoenician Scheme is no different. Genuinely it is a pleasant persistency. There’s nothing else quite like it. This film is full of absurdist humour.
Of course, this style isn’t for everyone. The bizarre curtness of conversations could be a bit alienating. Anderson’s style can be hit or miss. The Life Aquatic did not work for me, but The Grand Budapest Hotel certainly did. This film is somewhere in the middle, similar to Asteroid City. Del Toro’s character is not the easiest character to empathize with. With early scenes depicting him as unreliable and even dangerous, to his daughter citing sources about him killing his wife (even multiple wives!) All of this is played with Anderson’s stylistic unorthodoxian whimsy, and probably isn’t true. But going forward… the lead character is hard to relate to. But we also have his daughter, Liesl, who has become a nun and initially plans to use his fortunes for the Church’s benefit. She is also a little difficult to read. Michael Cera’s character, Bjorn, even more so!
But it is quite funny. The dialogue is paced excellently as it often is with Anderson’s direction. Some novelty casting for isolated scenes warrants a chuckle. The questionable nature of our protagonists is uplifted up with the surrealism of the movie. Whatever their fate is, it will be quite funny probably. Newcomers like Richard Ayoade fit right into this bizarre potpourri of sights and sounds. Anderson’s style lends itself to the 1950s aesthetic immediately. There’s always a distinctly theatrical style: he shoots rooms with a wide angle; scenes play out with fixed cameras. Interiors are lush and exacting, and of course full of symmetry. His style of camera movements, tracking shots, right-angle transitions. The latter used very well when a character is slapped. It all adds to am uncanniness that is inherently chuckle-worthy.
If you know Wes Anderson, of course you are going to enjoy it. Unaccustomed audiences might wonder why there’s fascination with wallpaper and tiling patterns (they are really nice patterns, to be fair). But if you let it wash over you, it’ll be a trip if nothing else.
