6 hours ago
3 
I was ready to anoint Wes Anderson’s new film The Phoenician Scheme his best work yet if it followed in the fashion of its giddy, amusing and succinct trailer.
But unfortunately, after a promising start, it somewhat crashes and burns and I’ve been left wondering what could have been.
We were promised a cohesive and engaging comedy caper, just like his Oscar-nominated 2014 movie The Grand Budapest Hotel, which is regularly cited as among his greatest work.
Sadly, I don’t see this one making it into the filmmaker’s fans’ top tier either, the same as its predecessor Asteroid City – although there is always much to admire.
Even a weak Wes Anderson film is a visual treat for the eyes and a witty and off-beat adventure for the soul.
The opening section of the film promised a lot of action after business tycoon Zsa-zsa Korda (Benicio del Toro) dramatically escapes a sixth assassination attempt – firing his pilot midair as they try to land the beleaguered plane after a man is ripped clean in half.
Naturally, Korda starts grappling with his own mortality and decides to build bridges with his sole daughter (of 10 children), pipe-smoking novice nun Liesl (Mia Threapleton), who he also makes sole heir to his estate.
Acting isn’t any kind of issue in The Phoenician Scheme. Threapleton, daughter to Kate Winslet, more than holds her own in her first major movie role, turning in an assured performance of a cool-cucumber character that takes on some of Anderson’s most mannered quirks, such as marching towards a corner to deliver a question facing the wall.
She appears opposite Hollywood pros of many years’ standing, including Tom Hanks, Bill Murray, Scarlett Johansson, Willem Dafoe, Jeffrey Wright and Benedict Cumberbatch.
Del Toro is able to create some empathy with his coldly charismatic and complex anti-hero as he attempts to build a relationship with his daughter, while Michael Cera completes the main trio as Korda’s meek tutor, Bjørn Lund.
Cera is exceptional in the film; I’ve never seen an actor who appears more immediately natural and in sync, working with Anderson in his very particular cinematic sandpit. Without giving anything away, the development of Bjørn also offers him the chance to later do something completely different with the character – which he also nails.
A major issue of Anderson having such a stacked supporting cast is lacking character depth and major under-utilisation of certain actors. Despite pretty small parts, Hanks and Bryan Cranston prove a fun double act, but the stand outs are Richard Ayoade, Riz Ahmed in his debut film for Anderson and Cumberbatch, who appears to be having the most fun of anyone from behind a large beard and messy eyebrows as an unhinged relative.
Ayoade is also really carving out a cinematic home for himself with Anderson, having also been confirmed by the director at the Cannes press conference to be co-writing the Fantastic Mr Fox filmmaker’s next project, alongside him and longtime collaborator Roman Coppola.
But the main issue with The Phoenician Scheme is that it runs out of a steam as the father-daughter duo go on their journey together to negotiate the film’s titular project. The film is split into segments courtesy of each meeting, but it distracted me as I tried to work out how much time was left of the film. Not exactly a great indicator of me being enthralled throughout.
Over the course of the movie, Korda keeps having visions of heaven and judgement in the afterlife, where God is naturally played by Bill Murray. But as the most abstract scenes of the film, they don’t end up adding anything other than overtly stylised interruption.
I also expected the film to be a little lighter and tongue-in-cheek than it actually ended up being – not that it needed to hugely humorous, but there was space to suggest that was the intention in some scenes which just didn’t work out that way.
And, for better or worse, the Wes Anderson quirk is still extremely present and correct in The Phoenician Scheme – just as many fans adore it, detractors moan about his movies all seeming too similar because of it.
It’s not in dispute that The Phoenician Scheme is still gorgeous and polished, if you’re not too turned off by the filmmaker’s overwhelming aesthetic, as well as quality filmmaking.
However, the movie is just not as special as I expected or hoped it would be.
The Phoenician Scheme premiered at Cannes Film Festival. It’s released in the UK on Friday,May 23, and in the US on Friday, May 30.
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