The Royal Tenenbaums 2001

Glenn Lovell, San Jose Mercury News: If I smiled at all during this colossal misfire, it was at Hackman, who knows how to do cheerfully thoughtless better than anyone around. The rest of the cast looks lost and miserable. Read more

Terry Lawson, Detroit Free Press: Even at its most painfully precious, The Royal Tenenbaums is never less than entertaining and involving. Read more

Richard Roeper, Ebert & Roeper: [A] wonderful cast. Read more

Moira MacDonald, Seattle Times: A rich mixture of sadness, comfort and joy. Read more

Mark Caro, Chicago Tribune: In honing their unique comic sensibility, Anderson and Wilson have delivered the year's best American comedy. Read more

Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times: The Royal Tenenbaums is such a hermetic film that the Coen brothers' work seems practically Capra-esque by comparison. Read more

Jay Boyar, Orlando Sentinel: Despite the stylization of this movie and the exaggerated behavior of its characters, The Royal Tenenbaums has a lot to say about family, as well as about early promise and how to live with not living up to it. Read more

Steven Rea, Philadelphia Inquirer: A devastatingly funny portrait of a wildly dysfunctional clan. Read more

Philip Wuntch, Dallas Morning News: Sparkles with verbal wit and visual flair. Read more

Paul Tatara, CNN.com: Inappropriate directness informs every second of The Royal Tenenbaums, and it just about wrecks the movie. Read more

A.O. Scott, New York Times: At once endearing and unbearably show-offy, it seems to be the product of a sensibility formed by age-inappropriate reading: a childhood spent sneaking into the grown-up fiction section of the library. Read more

Gene Seymour, Newsday: Juicy to look at, the movie sustains its enchantments, even when it gets a little too smug for its own good. Read more

Lou Lumenick, New York Post: Anderson, who collaborated on the script (as in his previous films) with his college buddy Owen Wilson, gives everyone some of the best dialogue heard in a recent movie. Read more

Andrew Sarris, New York Observer: Anderson is not lacking in cleverness and ingenuity as a filmmaker, but it takes something more to produce a dramatically and emotionally satisfying movie. Read more

Eleanor Ringel Gillespie, Atlanta Journal-Constitution: Cheerfully quirky -- and I mean that in a good way. Read more

Nathan Rabin, AV Club: If [Anderson] and Wilson love their actors, characters, and ideas too much to reign themselves in, they at least overreach in the service of one of the year's warmest, funniest films. Read more

Jonathan Rosenbaum, Chicago Reader: Whatever my qualms, it's still one of the funniest comedies around. Read more

Bruce Westbrook, Houston Chronicle: [Anderson] makes us laugh, he makes us think, and he does it in a distinctive screwball style. Read more

Steven Rosen, Denver Post: The Royal Tenenbaums are one of the sweetest, most enjoyable dysfunctional families to be featured in movies. Read more

Lisa Schwarzbaum, Entertainment Weekly: The picture's creative pulse ... is clearly, brightly, powerfully that of Anderson. Read more

David Germain, Associated Press: While the situations sometimes feel forced, Anderson has mounted an elegant production, beautifully filmed and accentuated by pleasant narration from Alec Baldwin and classy storybook transitions. Read more

Manohla Dargis, L.A. Weekly: Wes Anderson is an authentic original -- an eccentric and heretical talent. Read more

David Ansen, Newsweek: Tenenbaums doesn't quite jell, but it's a beautiful near miss. Read more

Anthony Lane, New Yorker: Each character, as ever, is tucked into a shell of his or her obsessions, and yet the filming itself -- the grace of Anderson's draftsmanship, as it were -- binds the figures together into a team. Read more

Peter Rainer, New York Magazine/Vulture: 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. Read more

Jack Mathews, New York Daily News: This comedy-drama about a dysfunctional family of eccentric geniuses is exactly the kind of movie America could use. It's funny, poignant, laced with irresistibly flawed characters and focuses on the power of love in a family. Read more

James Berardinelli, ReelViews: Rarely (if ever) side-splittingly funny, but there are so many clever moments that nasty chuckles and devilish smiles come at frequent intervals. Read more

Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: It's proof that Anderson and his writing partner, the actor Owen Wilson, have a gift of cockeyed genius. Read more

Peter Travers, Rolling Stone: That it works is due to director Wes Anderson, who has made something eccentric and hilarious that can suddenly -- or maybe not for hours or even days later -- choke you up with emotion. Read more

Stephanie Zacharek, Salon.com: Rushmore director Wes Anderson is more interested in his own precocity than he is in his characters. Read more

Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle: A film like no other, an epic, depressive comedy, with lots of ironic laughs and a humane and rather sad feeling at its core. Read more

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

Jeff Strickler, Minneapolis Star Tribune: The film manages to be both sarcastic and sentimental. As odd as the Tenenbaums are, the family remains bound by love. Read more

Joe Williams, St. Louis Post-Dispatch: For this fable of family dysfunction, [Anderson] has added some genuine feelings, a melancholy core that resonates beneath the oddball humor. Read more

Rick Groen, Globe and Mail: Wonderfully free-wheeling and delightfully mad, yet brought off with a fluid confidence that somehow makes the disjointed parts magically cohere. Read more

Geoff Pevere, Toronto Star: An eloquent, eccentric and surprisingly touching tribute to the comic dignity of failure. Read more

Richard Schickel, TIME Magazine: 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. Read more

Tom Charity, Time Out: A comedy of unrequited love, melancholy and disappointment. One to savour. Read more

Claudia Puig, USA Today: The film grows on you, but more substance and less calculated quirks would have been a royal treat. Read more

Todd McCarthy, Variety: As richly conceived as the novel it pretends to be... Read more

J. Hoberman, Village Voice: May not be the movie of the year, but it is a seasonal gift to us all. Read more

Desson Thomson, Washington Post: This is a review telling you to see The Royal Tenenbaums because director Wes Anderson's films are always good. But the recommendation comes carefully measured. Read more