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"We made certain sacrifices as the result of having children."
An excellent musical score accompanies the narrator of this movie, Alec Baldwin. He tells us the story of THE ROYAL
TENENBAUMS in chapters from the very beginning. He tells us of Royal Tenenbaum and his wife Etheline Tenenbaum
(Gene Hackman and Angelica Huston). They had three children Chas played by Ben Stiller, Richie played by
Luke Wilson and their adopted daughter Margot (Gwyneth Paltrow) and then they separated.
Chas started buying real estate in his early teens and for no natural reason he seemed to have an excellent understanding of international
finance. Margot was a playwright and in the ninth grade she received a Braverman Grant of $50,000 for her efforts. Richie was a
junior champion tennis player and won the U.S. Nationals three years in a row. The three had a friend next door played by Owen
Wilson, Eli Cash.
"I hear you're dying."
Royal Tenenbaum liked to smoke, gamble, cheat and do pretty much everything thing else in the book, except pay attention to his family.
After their father , Royal, left his family without divorcing Etheline (Anjelica Houston), virtually all memory of their brilliance was
subsequentally erased by two decades of betrayl, failure and disaster. Needless to say they blamed their father. Royal ended up spending
three years enjoying the states prison accomadtions for embezzlement. Now some twenty years later he is out of money and he's being
evicted from his hotel. So after all these years their father, with the inside help of Mr. Pagoda (Kumar Pallana), his old servant, he
has decided to re-unite with his family telling them that he has a terminal illness. Unfortunately they don't want him back and even more
unfortunate is that he really is dying.
"I want to thank you for raising our children."
Etheline is now engaged to Henry Sherman played by Danny Glover. Chas has now grown up paranoid about safety since the death
of his wife. He puts his two boys, Ari (Grant Rosenmeyer) and Uzi (Jonah Meyerson), through countless safety drills and
watches everything they do. Margot has become a chain smoking, burnt out playwright married to psychiatrist Raleigh St. Clair
(Bill Murray). Richie had a meltdown during a nationally televised tennis match. He has a big problem he loves his siter in unsisterly
ways. Remember that Margot is an adopted Tenenbaum. Eli wenjt on to become a cowboy novelist with problems. Will this family accept their
father once they find out he is dying?...Nah.
"I think we're going to be secretly in love with each other and leave it at that, Ritchie."
Royal does everything to insinuate himself into the family. He even has Pagoda stab him to gain some sympathy from his family. Through all of
his chicanery he realizes that he really wants to be part of his families life as well. He spends as much time as possible teaching his two
grandsons to enjoy themselves much to the chagrin of their father, Chas. He tries to help Margot and Richie as much as possible as well. He
tries hard to redeem his own failures by helping his kids get their lives straightened out. He tries hard and he even gets a greater respect for
his wife. Eventually he realizes that he has to let his wife go which leads us to a really hillarious wedding between Ethline and Henry.
"I've had a rough year dad."
The film is riotously funny at times but it still manages to be very heartwarming. The film deals with suicide, mental illness, death and almost
about incest. Many people sometimes find it difficult to laugh at others problems but still we do so because we believe better them then me
and we might as well assuage our guilt by laughing. After all if you thought your family had problems, just wait until you get a load of the
problems that the Tenenbaum clan have. It's difficult not to laugh during this film because the writing is superb and creative. Actually
it would not surprise me if the film garnered some Academy Award © nominations.
My goodness. How interesting, how bizarre."
Oh yeah is you see dalmation mice running around the screen don't worry that is how one of the kids made money by raising these little spotted
critters. So what can you expect from a quirky film. Fart jokes? Nope, not a one. Great right? This is just a clever film with lots of satarical
characters living somewhat over the top lives. They will supply you with lots of laughs so when you have the time head out and enjoy
THE ROYAL TENENBAUMS. You may even find out if a man screws up his entire life can he still repair the damage. I know I enjoyed
finding out the answer. Hey, oh sainted wife of mine, pass the popcorn will you.
"Did you try to sew it back on?"
"It wasn't worth it."
By the way when you go to a movie try not spill your drinks on peoples coats okay. I hate it when that happens to me, but then again it gives me
an excuse to wash my coat. Well I have to leave now, there's a movie serial waiting for me to watch it.
"I'm going to kill myself tomorrow."
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