Throughout the years I've heard about the movie "The Royal Tenenbaums" but I never actually had a chance to watch it until recently. I figured it would have been one of those films that was severely overrated by a lot of people, but it turns out that even though I didn't think that it was as original as a lot of other people said, I still liked it a lot.

Directed by the popular Wes Anderson, and co-written by Owen Wilson, who also plays a part in the movie, The Royal Tenenbaums is basically about a highly dysfunctional family of child prodigies. The movie begins in the late sixties to early seventies when the family is wealthy and each of the children have found their niches. However, it continues with them as adults when they have all become estranged, the father had moved out for years and they are all reunited when he tells them that he has a terminal illness.

The first thing that really caught me about the movie was the way that the story was told. Most movies tend to jump into the story or might just start with a simple flashback, leaving the audience to figure things out. However, this one begins with a narrator (Alex Baldwin) telling the story of the Tenenbaums when they were younger and how they eventually came apart and separated. I felt that this contributed to the movie because it made it a lot easier to transition to what things were years later when all the children are grown with their own lives, as well as I felt that it made the movie more dramatic.

Something else that I loved was the exploration of most of the characters especially the Tenenbaum clan. I loved what they did with Margot Tenenbaum especially since she is portrayed as distant and somewhat of a mystery especially when it is revealed that she disappears to goodness knows where for four years after she and her brother ran off.

I personally think that a deeper study of Margot as a character would show that her frigidness and secrecy is brought on by her father's inability to show her much love when she was a child, as well as also constantly referring to her as his adopted daughter.

When I see movies like these with so many great actors, my first thought before I watch them is generally "too many cooks spoil the broth"; because I've seen so many movies that were chock full of talent that ended up to be completely worthless. However, in this instance this is definitely not the case. I thought everyone played their characters extremely well, even Owen Wilson, who I've always found played very annoying characters.

I thought the actor Gene Hackman did an especially great job with his character Royal, to the point where I wasn't totally sure if another actor could have done as well. I thought that he did an excellent job of portraying Royal as an insensitive manipulative person; and then played the role so effortlessly.
As strange as it might sound, one of my favourite scenes in the movie was when Mordecai, Richie Tenenbaum's pet bird returns faithfully even though he has been gone for a very long time. I liked the scene because I thought that it is representative of the all them members of the family. Over the years, starting with the departure of their father, the siblings each experienced trauma and yet still they all returned, since they thought their father was dying.

I think that most people who love dramas will like this one. It's interesting and both the plot and the way that it is translated to film, tries to be very original