The Phoenician Scheme (2 ½ out of 4 stars)
“Help yourself to a hand grenade.”
Oddly polite, deadpan lines like these are signature touches of a Wes Anderson movie, along with symmetrical framing, dramatic camera moves and broken protagonists. “The Phoenician Scheme” has an abundance of Anderson, and fans will have a lot of fun with the director’s latest outing. But I think the lack of some other elements may keep it a little lower on the filmmaker’s all-time best list.
The film opens with its protagonist about to go down in a plane crash. Zsa-zsa Korda (Benicio Del Toro) is a corrupt tycoon who has fallen in the crosshairs of the US government, as well as numerous other angry parties. When it becomes clear he’s been targeted for assassination, Korda sets off on a globe-hopping quest to visit all of his business partners and see if he can negotiate himself out of trouble.
Before he heads out, Korda calls for his estranged daughter Liesl (Mia Threapleton), who is on the verge of taking her vows to become a nun. Korda has decided to make her his primary beneficiary, chosen over the nine brothers Korda has sired with various women. Liesl accepts the arrangement on a provisional basis, and along with an awkward science tutor named Bjorn (Michael Cera), joins her father on his journey.
What follows is a sequence of very Wes Anderson-like encounters with a range of similarly deadpan, quirky characters, all played by familiar actors. Tom Hanks, Brian Cranston, Riz Ahmed, Scarlett Johansson, and eventually Benedict Cumberbatch all take their turn in the spotlight with Del Toro, with various assassins and the government never far behind. Along the way, Korda forges a tenuous connection with his daughter, and seeks some degree of redemption for his unscrupulous character.
Fans of Anderson’s past catalogue, especially films like 2001’s “The Royal Tenenbaums,” will hear the familiar notes, and “Phoenician Scheme” provides them often enough to compose a reasonable tune. But while Anderson’s latest gives plenty of opportunities for chuckles, those comparisons also leave the film feeling a little flat. All style and no substance is too harsh an accusation, but “Phoenician Scheme” offers a lot of the former and too little of the latter. Compared to early efforts like 1998’s “Rushmore” and the aforementioned “Tenenbaums,” “Phoenician Scheme” fails to deliver the meaningful emotional payoff that elevated those films above their quirks.
There is one other consideration. The aforementioned films, as well as 2004’s “The Life Aquatic” and 2007’s “Darjeeling Limited,” leaned hard on soundtracks built on less familiar songs from familiar bands, enough that deep cuts from The Rolling Stones or The Kinks feel as essential to the Anderson Formula as anything else. Without such a backbeat, “Phonecian Scheme” feels a little incomplete.
Admittedly, multiple viewings may be required to achieve the proper connection. It took a couple of views to really appreciate Bill Murray’s forlorn Herman Blume or Gene Hackman’s Royal Tenenbaum (may he rest in peace). So call this one a 2 ½ star movie with potential. “The Phoenician Scheme” probably won’t go down as one of Anderson’s best, but it’s good enough to justify a second watch to make sure.
“The Phoenician Scheme” is rated PG-13 for sequences of comic violence and profanity.