The Phoenician Scheme is writer-director Wes Anderson’s latest film and it continues the highly distinctive style he is known for in his nearly 30-year career. Source: Australian Catholics.
And The Phoenician Scheme is idiosyncratically distinctive. It is stylised in the visuals, the traditional box screen frame, the framing of action, the references to paintings and the staging to look like 20th century paintings.
Then there are the performances, also stylised and often resembling theatre performances, with eccentric and clipped delivery of lines, postures and posing. And, for those audiences ready to surrender to Anderson, these visuals and the performances are readily engaging.
There is a plot. The setting is 1950, an entrepreneurial businessman from Hungary, Korda, (played perfectly – seriously and ironically – by Benicio del Toro). Korda has survived several plane crashes and assassins who are out to get him and sabotage his plan for development, rails and tunnels in Phoenicia.
The viewer is presented with a chart indicating Korda’s plans as well as the contacts he must make to improve a shortfall in income for the project. They serve as chapters for the film.
Korda has many children, his own and adopted, hoping for an Einstein for the future. But his only daughter, Liesl, a novice nun (Threapleton), is seconded, initially unwillingly and firmly committed to her vocation, to be his heir
And, there is Korda’s new assistant, an expert on insects (played with accent by Michael Cera).
Interspersed throughout it is round table conference of elders who are monitoring Korda’s behaviour judging him and his morality.
The encounters with the various characters for financial help are highly entertaining, eccentric and satirically humorous in their way, incorporating the various stars listed above until a culmination in the fearsome presence of Korda’s brother (Benedict Cumberbatch).
Anderson has a wry and offbeat sense of humour, so expect the unexpected, realism and surrealism, farcical and deadly serious moments. A treat for those who are willing to be tantalised.
Review by Fr Peter Malone MSC, Jesuit Media
The Phoenician Scheme: Starring Benicio del Toro, Mia Threapleton, Michael Cera, Riz Ahmed, Tom Hanks, Bryan Cranston, Mathieu Amalric, Richard Ayoade, Jeffrey Wright, Scarlett Johansson, Benedict Cumberbatch, Rupert Friend, Hope Davis, Bill Murray, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Willem Dafoe, F Murray Abraham, Stephen Park, Alex Jennings, Donald Sumpter, Scott Shepherd. Directed by Wes Anderson. 101 minutes. Rated M (Injury detail).
FULL REVIEW
The Phoenician Scheme (Australian Catholics)
