Movie Breakdown: The Phoenician Scheme
Pre-Screening Stance:
While I consider myself a pretty big Wes Anderson fan, his last two films, The French Dispatch and Asteroid City, didn’t really work for me. The Phoenician Scheme looks fun though, so I’m hopeful it’ll be more in line with some of his earlier works.
Post-Screening Ramble:
The Phoenician Scheme gets underway with a pretty silly … plane crash, and during this scene I really figured that I was in for a vintage Wes Anderson ride. Unfortunately though, I was wrong. After churning out a pair of “art is hard,” vignette-style movies (The French Dispatch, Asteroid City), Anderson hops back to a more narrative-driven affair here that’s squarely in his comfort zone, which is stories that involve not-great fathers (or father-like figures). In this film, the bad dad at its center is Zsa-zsa Korda (Benicio Del Toro), a business tycoon who’s determined to convince his daughter Liesel (Mia Threapleton) to give up being a nun and instead take over his empire. Of course, she’s not particularly interested, but she joins in with him anyway on a winding trip to try and save a project that, if it falls apart, will wipe out his fortune. From here, I would love to say that Del Toro chews up every scene and the litany of famous-face cameos deliver a continuous kick to the film, but that’s just not the case. Every line in this movie is delivered in the same exact monotone way, and after a while it’s near impossible to tell any of the characters apart. Why have such a wonderful cast if they’re not going to be allowed to do anything? It’s too bad, really, because the cinematography is lovely and each scene is packed with all the little details that make an Anderson film shine, but the performances and dialogue are so jammed into a specific style that the whole thing just feels like blunt force twee. Bummer.
Personally, I found The Phoenician Scheme to be a slog. If you’re running off to see it anyways, I recommend going in with your expectations in check. The film hits theaters this Friday, June 6.
One Last Thought:
I’m honestly still very surprised that The Phoenician Scheme is Michael Cera’s first appearance in a Wes Anderson film.
