The Phoenician Scheme
These kinds of comments really don't do justice to Anderson's singular talent, nor do they give enough credit to the different narrative themes and storytelling choices that he makes from movie to movie, even if they are often variations of a theme. His visual style has evolved into a surreal, painstakingly staged playhouse version of the real world, eschewing actual locations for completely fabricated sets, which, okay, may not be to some's liking. But what sets! What framing! Each of his recent movies has artfully captured completely different time periods and locales, even if the overall "style" is similar. The point is, no one can do what Wes does, and he is far too casually dismissed by many these days.
But then again, so it goes: for all of his critics, he has even more fans, and I am certainly one of them. "The Phoenician Scheme," while maybe not amongst the director's very best, is still a wildly entertaining romp and a visual smorgasbord of beautiful sets and colorful gags. Anderson once again assembles a pantheon of talent (this time including Benicio del Toro, Michael Cera, Riz Ahmed, Tom Hanks, Bryan Cranston, Scarlett Johansson and Benedict Cumberbatch, just to name a few) and gives them all their moment to be delightfully weird, often bouncing off each other in truly hilarious ways.
If anything, the narrative is much more straightforward than Anderson's recent output. Gone are the layers of stories within stories, narrated by someone telling a story about yet another story. Here, we mostly stay on one track: the world-famous industrialist and arms dealer Anatole "Zsa-Zsa" Korda (del Toro) narrowly survives the latest in a lifetime of assassination attempts and/or plane crashes, and decides to bring his estranged daughter into his business to keep things moving after his increasingly likely demise. His daughter Sister Liesl (Mia Threapleton) is pulled out of her training to be a Christian novice after not even speaking to her father for years. She reluctantly agrees to follow her father around on the condition that he helps her get revenge on the uncle that likely murdered her mother. Along for the ride is Bjørn (Cera), a Norwegian entomologist who serves as administrative assistant while teaching everyone about bugs. The trio must travel around the fictional country of Phoenicia to negotiate terms with various business magnates, all while being chased by agents of a shady consortium of government figures.
It's good that the story is simple, because the amount of quick dialogue and visual gags is often overwhelming; I was often straining to make sure I caught all of what was said in order to understand what was going on, and repeat viewings are definitely necessary to completely absorb all the glorious background detail. Once you get into the groove, the meat of the story is basically del Toro and crew getting into hijinks as they try and convince other strange rich people to invest in their project. Thankfully, this is often very funny. Hanks and Cranston play two brothers who will only invest if they can be beaten in a game of basketball. Another investor (Jeffrey Wright) only capitulates after Korda pulls the pin on a live grenade as a crazed last-ditch tactic. Cera steals the show with the meatiest role, particularly after a dramatic reveal has him change his character completely. Each different stop along the way is a delight, and most of the guest stars really make the most of their limited screen time.
Anderson has a few new tricks up his sleeve, including some surprising (but cartoonish) violence, and even some political commentary: the many businessmen in the story are so rich that they can do whatever they want, with each and every insane whim followed through until the end, because, well, who can stop them? It's not exactly biting commentary on the types of people who have risen to power around the world of late, but for Anderson, it's a welcome tweak.
The emotional core is Korda trying to connect with his daughter, with each eventually rubbing off on each other. Korda begins to shed monetary possessions as he slowly realizes that his family is more important than any business scheme, while Sister Liesl experiences the world outside of the convent, slowly (and humorously) starting to drink and smoke as the story progresses. In the end, they realize that no matter how rich or poor they are, all that really matters is their connection to each other. It's a sweet father/daughter tale, but it's maybe a little difficult to connect to due to Korda being basically a shitheel. He never shows remorse for what he's done or is doing, and as charming as he is, this is a man that openly cracks about needing slavery to complete his project. Redemption is likely beyond him, both in the world and in the afterlife (shown in repeated nightmare near-death visions with God), but we are still rooting for him to make nice with his daughter and drop his foolish plans to shape the world to his whims. Maybe that's the best he can hope for, and as such, that's all we can expect of him and people like him.
It's sappy, twee and done in muted colors, just like we've come to expect from Anderson, but his progression as a filmmaker and master stylist is still there for all to see, even if some have stopped trying to see it. Here's hoping Wes keeps doing his thing; I'll be there opening night for anything he decides to put out.
