The Phoenician Scheme (#694)


Because there was so much ado about the director/screenwriter/producer of the film I saw yesterday, I decided to know more about him. Wes Anderson was described by critics as "auteur."  For those of you like me who didn't know the word, I looked it up. The simplest definition is "distinctive," and he certainly fits that word. I realized I had seen at least one of his films, The Grand Budapest Hotel, and recalled that it was distinctive and that I enjoyed it and thought it was funny as well. THE PHOENICIAN SCHEME was distinctive, and according to what I had read, shared other characteristics of Anderson's films. It was quirky, was about family, and had a cast of lots of Hollywood stars, some starring and others in bit parts and largely unrecognizable to me. In this one, they included Benicio del Toro (the star), Scarlett Johansson, the ubiquitous Tom Hanks, Bryan Cranston, Benedict Cumberbatch, Willem Dafoe, F. Murray Abraham, Bill Murray and on and on in minor, unrecognizable roles. It is about a wealthy, unscrupulous man who survives a plane crash and is embarked on a project to name his one daughter, a novitiate in a convent, as his sole heir, ignoring his 11 sons and ex-wives. It is funny at times and bizarre most of the time. Incredible weird settings and dialogue--mostly incomprehensible to me--but it was never boring in its one hour and 41 minutes. Critics gave it a 79% thumbs up; audiences a 72%. I'm still not sure whether I enjoyed it or not.

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