It’s another head scratcher from the Salvador Dali of film, Writer/Director Wes Anderson who created this story with Roman Coppola. Basically, it’s about an ultra-rich man in Europe constantly the target of assassination attempts deciding who he should leave his fortune to. It’s also a way for him to reunite more with his daughter before he dies. It’s all about this family and the future of the family business.
The idea was born with Anderson and Del Toro talking at the 2021 Cannes premiere of The French dispatch. Anderson’s father-in-law had an intimidating persona and kept all his important things in shoe boxes. That grew into an story about a guy who couldn’t be killed.
Anderson’s visual style is boxy and you see it on screen as boxes moving from side to side; and packed again with A-listers playing a wide range of bizarre characters. They include first-timer Michael Cera, along with Anderson regulars Riz Ahmed, Tom Hanks, Bryan Cranston, Jeffrey Wright Scarlett Johansson, Benedict Cumberbatch, Rupert Friend, Hope Davis, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Bill Murray, Willem Dafoe and F. Murray Abraham.
Anderson opens the film with an overhead shot of Del Toro in a bathtub against a geometric black on white patterned tile floor over which opening credits set the stage. Later in the film Zsa Zsa feels it is now necessary to create a master plan he lays out on a tray with different shaped, decorated boxes holding different of his riches he wants to bestow to certain of his children.
The central character is Zsa Zsa Korda (Del Toro) who is the center and orchestrator of all that happens in this film. Anderson literally wrote reams of dialogue for del Toro and the actor pulls it off. He’s in just about every shot of the 35mm film captured by French Cinematographer Bruno Delbonnel in his first collaboration with Anderson. The film was shot in Babelsburg, Germany and even found a sandy area right next to a forest for the desert scenes.
For the opening sequence Anderson shot the actors in slow motion, and to get a particular style he had them speed up their movements. And listen carefully when The Captain (Jeffrey Wright) is on screen. He rattles off his lines so fast, you’ll have a hard time figuring out what he’s saying. Zsa’s Zsa’s cousin Hilda (Scarlett Johansson) is in the family business, overseeing a project connected to the Phoenician Scheme. Then there are some oddly comedic scenes with brothers Leland (Tom Hanks) and Reagan (Bryan Cranston) together, who love basketball. Their prowess at the game is on full display.
Zsa Zsa’s daughter, is a Nun, Sister Liesl (Maple Threapleton) and it looks like he is using this opportunity to get to know her for the first time. She may be getting the most from her father and may help him dole out the spoils to his collection of sons, who he doesn’t know very well either. His first wife played by Charlotte Gainsbourg (Étoile), is not an issue.
Anderson’s particular style is on full display. His actors all portray their characters in deadpan, almost monotone voice with quick rat-a-tat delivery. One exception is the funniest character of the lot, Michael Cera as Bjorn Lund who tutors his sons speaking with a rather put-on belabored Scandinavian style accent. Bjorn takes an interest in Sister Lisel along the way.
The screen is filled with bright, vibrant, saturated color with a variety of detail. But Anderson also employs ethereal Black and White scenes for visual punctuation. Every object in each shot has been carefully placed. There’s so much to look at in this new creatively whimsical entry in Anderson’s body of work, that elements of the plot get lost. You just might have to see this film again to try and understand this filmmaker’s imaginative, but perplexing fable.
Focus Features 1 hour 41 minutes PG-13
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