Susan Granger’s review of “The Phoenician Scheme” (Focus Features)
When you watch a Wes Anderson film, you can expect a somewhat obtuse story, marked by a distant parental figure, witty dialogue, quirky criminals and arresting visuals. Some are hits – like “Bottle Rocket,” “Rushmore,” “The Royal Tenenbaums,” “The Darjeeling Limited,” “The Fantastic Mr. Fox,” & “The Grand Budapest Hotel” – others miss the mark – like “Isle of Dogs” and “Asteroid City.”
Featuring the tagline – “The story of a family and a family business” – “The Phoenician Scheme” falls in the latter category.
It’s a bizarre espionage comedy revolving around Anatole ‘Zsa-zsa’ Korda (Benicio Del Toro), a ruthless 1950s European industrialist who – having recently survived a sixth assassination attempt – is trying to heal his relationship with his estranged daughter Liesl (Mia Threapleton), who blames him for her mother’s death and is preparing to take vows as a Catholic nun.
Collaborating with screenwriter Roman Coppola, Anderson has said that part of the highly mannered, exploring-capitalism concept was inspired by his late Lebanese father-in-law Fouad Malouf – to whom the picture is dedicated.
As the elusive plot unfolds, Zsa-zsa retrieves shoeboxes containing blueprints for complex public works projects in Modern Greater Independent Phoenicia. Key players involved in this scheme are Bjorn Lund (Michael Cera), a Norwegian entomologist, along with Phoenician Crown Prince Farouk (Riz Ahmed) and basketball-playing brothers Leland (Tom Hanks) and Reagan (Bryan Cranston).
Plus there’s Zsa-zsa’s cousin Hilda (Scarlett Johansson), his duplicitous brother Nubar (Benedict Cumberbatch), American shipping tycoon Marty (Jeffrey Wright) and other eccentric characters played by F. Murray Abraham, Matthew Amalric, Richard Ayoade, Willem Dafoe, Hope Davis, Rupert Friend, Charlotte Gainsboug and Bill Murray as God.
Clever production design – marked by fixated symmetry – is a key component thanks to Adam Stockhausen, who borrowed authentic Renoir and Magritte masterpieces, duly registered by cinematographer Bruno Delbonnel.
FYI: 24-year-old Mia Threapleton is Kate Winslet’s real-life daughter and Zsa-zsa’s name is probably derived from Hungarian femme fatale Zsa-Zsa Gabor and the film-making Korda brothers: Alexander, Vincent & Zoltan.
On the Granger Gauge of 1 to 10, “The Phoenician Scheme” is a forgettable, star-studded, idiosyncratic 6, playing in theaters.
