The Royal Tenenbaums

I haven’t seen this film in way too long and I noticed how I started to forget how much I once loved it. I first saw it when I was around twelve or thirteen and I somehow disliked it. I had only seen The Grand Budapest Hotel at that point and The Royal Tenenbaums was really not like that one at all. It was slow, depressing and somehow melancholically sad. A couple of months later I rewatched The Royal Tenenbaums. I suddenly loved it. I could relate to every single one of the three children’s relationship to their father. It became my favourite film right after my second watch. Now watching this for the third time, a little older, I think I can interpret a little more into the film and its characters: The three siblings might think they’re not similar, but I actually disagree. They all try to process their father’s neglect and disapproval in different ways, which make them somehow the same again. *“You probably don’t even know my middle name.” *Margot being excluded and less valued by Royal due to her being adopted, leads to her keeping everything in her life a secrecy and trying to drown her sadness in wanting to grow up as fast as possible (e.g. starting to smoke at twelve, having multiple relationships very young, having a husband who’s much older). I think that Margot searching for her actual family at fourteen shows how she thinks she doesn’t fit in with the Tenenbaums, and her trying to find someone who actually “wants” her. “I’ve had a rough year, Dad.” Chas tries so hard to distance himself from, especially his father, but also his brother, who was always favoured by their father (I’ll get into that later on). He only wears track suits, very different from what he wore as a child, which was exclusively suits with ties. I suppose this shows how he tries to move on from his younger self, who still had “love” for his father. Chas also makes his children wear the same thing as himself and tries to train his children to the maximum (having them workout multiple times a week). He forbids his children to visit their grandfather and goes so far to even sue him, because of their past. In the end, Chas is the person, that was there while Royal died of a heart attack. He moved on from the grudge he held against his dad and learnt to love him again. “I’m going to kill myself tomorrow.” I chose to cover Richie last, because I think his emotional development is the most complex and also most depressing. He was his father’s favourite, being the one child that Royal thought would be most successful with his career. He spent time with his son and they had (as it seems to me), mostly a good relationship. After loosing his tennis match, shortly after Margot’s and her husband’s engagement, his father got greatly disappointed in him. I think that this destroyed Richie. He always wanted his father’s love and not being able to do what his dad wanted from him, made him depressed and suicidal. His love towards Margot, that he was unable to pursue, adds to that too of course. Richie is someone who tries to please everyone, while he forgets to remember his own needs. Royal is not someone who one should feel sorry for, for his children’s distance towards him. I know the kind of a father trying to get into his children’s life, after not being there for them emotionally and physically for years, too well. Royal is exactly that type of father. He might not have noticed the emotional impact he had on his children, but the fact that all three of them end up depressed and unhappy, shows what their upbringing did to them. Royal also often, unknowingly crashed his children’s confidence or made them loose their trust towards him (Not saying anything good about Margot’s play, “shooting” Chas even though they were in the same team). Another thing I need to talk about is a very important aspect of this film: “the family of geniuses”. All three children were very successful and famous for different things: Margot for her screenplays, Chas for being invested in finance and money, and Richie for his tennis success. Yet, once they grew older, all of them lost this fame and adoration they had, while being children. Margot stops writing, Richie retires from tennis, ... I think this might be because of the pressure that was on them, for always being the “perfect” children. I know that not only their father but also this, is a reason of their depression later on.  You can also tell that Chas and Richie actually do the same thing, but exactly the other way around. Chas goes from hating his father to having a good relationship with him, while Richie goes from having a good relationship with Royal to distancing himself from him. This is such a beautiful film and I can only recommend it enough. I know I never write longer reviews but I just had so much to say about this film. Funnily enough, this is not even close to all of my thoughts on The Royal Tenenbaums, I could probably write just as much again without a problem. Anyway if you read all of this, thank you so much!! I probably repeated myself a lot, but whatever…  The Royal Tenenbaums is such an underrated Wes Anderson, and my personal favourite. Okay that’s it! :)