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The Royal Tenenbaums

The Royal Tenenbaums (2002)

tomatometer

80

Average Rating: 7.2/10
Reviews Counted: 173
Fresh: 138 | Rotten: 35

The Royal Tenenbaums is a delightful adult comedy with many quirks and a sense of poignancy. Many critics especially praised Hackman's performance.

75

Average Rating: 6.7/10
Critic Reviews: 36
Fresh: 27 | Rotten: 9

The Royal Tenenbaums is a delightful adult comedy with many quirks and a sense of poignancy. Many critics especially praised Hackman's performance.

audience

87

liked it
Average Rating: 3.6/5
User Ratings: 224,289

My Rating

Movie Info

Director Wes Anderson and his longtime friend and writing partner Owen Wilson follow up Bottle Rocket (1996) and Rushmore (1998) with this similarly offbeat comedy about a dysfunctional family reunion. Royal Tenenbaum (Gene Hackman) was a successful attorney who had three children with his wife Etheline (Anjelica Huston), an archaeologist. Each of the Tenenbaum kids was a precocious genius: Chas (Ben Stiller) made a killing as a child investor. Richie (Luke Wilson) was a junior tennis champ and

R, 1 hr. 50 min.

Comedy

Wes Anderson, Owen Wilson

Jul 9, 2002

$52.3M

Buena Vista Distribution Compa

Cast

All Critics (176) | Top Critics (36) | Fresh (145) | Rotten (35) | DVD (39)

As with Anderson's Rushmore, there's a certain annoying preciousness to this film -- it's not so consistently wise or amusing as he thinks it is -- but it has its moments.

August 14, 2008 Full Review Source: TIME Magazine | Comment
TIME Magazine
Top Critic IconTop Critic

As richly conceived as the novel it pretends to be...

July 22, 2008 Full Review Source: Variety | Comment
Variety
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Whatever my qualms, it's still one of the funniest comedies around.

May 27, 2008 Full Review Source: Chicago Reader | Comment
Chicago Reader
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Apart from Hackman, the actors look more trapped by Anderson's rigid framing, color scheme, and enforced deadpan.

March 22, 2002 Full Review Source: Slate | Comment
Slate
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Anderson is something of a prodigy himself, and he's riddled with talent, but he hasn't figured out how to be askew and heartfelt at the same time.

January 22, 2002 Full Review Source: New York Magazine | Comment
New York Magazine
Top Critic IconTop Critic

The movie is deeper than it appears to be.

January 4, 2002 Comment
Orlando Sentinel
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Its laughs are like stealth bombers, sneaking up on us to the extent that we suddenly find ourselves chortling even as we're wrapped up in the movie's unexpected air of melancholia.

June 25, 2011 Full Review Source: Creative Loafing | Comment
Creative Loafing

Quirky extended-family story with dry adult humor.

December 29, 2010 Full Review Source: Common Sense Media | Comment
Common Sense Media

What remains Wes Anderson's most poetic film is the story of a family fractured by envy and fumbling for empathy at the insistence of a patriarch, perfectly played by Gene Hackman with affection and antagonism.

September 17, 2010 Full Review Source: Suite101.com | Comment
Suite101.com

The filmmaker's great conjunction picture, where every element, from casting to cinematography, found perfect alignment, bringing about Anderson's most emotionally pulling, visually arresting feature.

December 28, 2009 Comment
Modamag.com

Despite countless unique and amazing moments, the movie doesn't quite come together--which may not, in fact, go against the director's master plan.

August 27, 2009 Full Review Source: City Pages, Minneapolis/St. Paul | Comment

Wes Anderson has made his masterpiece. It's going to be hard for him to match it.

August 14, 2008 Full Review Source: Film4 | Comment

A wacky story that bumps up against one's heart as often as it does one's funny bone...

August 7, 2008 Full Review Source: Sacramento News & Review | Comment
Sacramento News & Review

To call it merely peculiar is a gross understatement.

October 13, 2007 Full Review Source: rec.arts.movies.reviews | Comments (8)
rec.arts.movies.reviews

Forget Max Fischer - this is Wes Anderson's opus.

October 4, 2007 Full Review Source: Sun Publications (Chicago, IL) | Comment
Sun Publications (Chicago, IL)

Anderson's film continues his exporation of dysfunctional families, this time a round done as novelistic film, with title cards for each chapter.

August 28, 2007 Full Review Source: EmanuelLevy.Com | Comment

Mr. Anderson and Mr. Wilson are gifted artists, and I look forward to seeing them produce something that strives for more than just sustaining their own hype.

July 14, 2007 Full Review Source: Big Picture Big Sound | Comment
Big Picture Big Sound

A comedy of unrequited love, melancholy and disappointment. One to savour.

June 24, 2006 Full Review Source: Time Out | Comment

It's one of the year's very best films.

May 26, 2006 Full Review Source: Combustible Celluloid | Comment
Combustible Celluloid

Very funny and painfully relevant two hours of entertainment.

December 6, 2005 Full Review Source: Film Threat | Comment
Film Threat

Wes Anderson simply has a unique way of looking at the world, and through him the ridiculous is made sublime. He has a hell of a distinctive style for someone his age. It would appear he might even be some kind of goddamn genius himself.

December 6, 2005 Full Review Source: Film Threat | Comment
Film Threat
More Critic Reviews

Audience Reviews for The Royal Tenenbaums

There is some whiff of the golf club with Wes Anderson for me. He is sometimes funny, but what he perceives as humor leaves a lot to be desired. This movie has the makings of a good one, but never quite gets over the hedge. This is just an okay film.

April 23, 2012
Sanjay Rema

Super Reviewer

Wes Anderson's 'The Royal Tenenbaums' is a remarkable piece of filmmaking. Every scene oozes charm, delight, whimsy, and brilliance. Anderson and Wilson create another amazing script with great bouts of dialogue and interesting character development. The cast is so strong, each character is not only acted to perfection

March 13, 2012
Kase Vollebregt

Super Reviewer

    1. Richie Tenenbaum: I am going to kill myself tomorrow.
    – Submitted by Kase V (2 months ago)
    1. Royal Tenenbaum: You can't raise boys to be scared of life. You got to brew some recklessness into them.
    2. Etheline Tenenbaum: I think that's terrible advice.
    – Submitted by Chad E (5 months ago)
    1. Royal Tenenbaum: Pagoda's in possession of a parcel containing my will and some instructions for the funeral including my epitaph, for when the time comes. Proofread it for me before they carve it on the headstone, okay?
    – Submitted by Chad E (5 months ago)
    1. Royal Tenenbaum: Henry Sherman, do you know him?
    2. Richie Tenenbaum: Yeah.
    3. Royal Tenenbaum: Is he worth a damn?
    4. Richie Tenenbaum: [emphatically] I believe so.
    – Submitted by Asif K (12 months ago)
    1. Margot Tenenbaum: You probably don't even know my middle name.
    2. Royal Tenenbaum: That's a trick question. You don't have one.
    3. Margot Tenenbaum: Helen.
    4. Royal Tenenbaum: That was my mother's name.
    5. Margot Tenenbaum: I know it was.
    – Submitted by Asif K (12 months ago)

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Foreign Titles

  • La Famille Tenenbaum (FR)
  • Los Excéntricos Tenenbaum (ES)
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