The Royal Tenenbaums (2001)

This ambitiously original ensemble comedy follows a gifted but dysfunctional New York family reunited when the estranged patriarch feigns terminal illness. Immaculately written and brilliantly performed, especially by Hackman, it is an extraordinary fable that restores faith in American cinema.

Anderson's film is a rare beauty alive with humanity and crippling sadness, earning its joy by making an ancient cliché crackle anew. The director's obsession with failure becomes tightly bound with hope, turning death into a vehicle for joy and second chances.

Anderson delivers a star-studded, ambitious ensemble comedy-drama that overreaches in the service of one of the year's warmest, funniest films. The director's affection for his eccentric characters and ideas shines through despite the messy scope.

The critic admires Anderson's peculiar tone and refusal to conform but finds the film over-designed and under-felt, with characters reduced to quirks and little genuine emotion or laughter beyond Hackman's lively performance.

The critic finds the film a dazzlingly original piece of work, more accomplished than Rushmore, with smart screenplay, superb sight gags and a fabulous ensemble cast. Hackman's performance stands out as particularly strong amid the offbeat eccentricities and poignant moments.

Watching the film is like being spirited away to an extremely sophisticated yet completely alien reality with a hermetic, forbidding style. It is a bleak farce set in an imaginary New York-ish city, densely imagined down to the smallest detail.

The film exists on a knife edge between comedy and sadness with big laughs and quiet touching moments. It stands in amazement as the dysfunctional family members unveil strategies to get attention, carve out space, and find love, understanding and sympathizing with them.

Anderson's serio-comedy expands his distinctive sensibility with a stellar cast and ambitious scope but results in a vastly uneven film due to its literary format, stylised visuals and shifting tone. It contains brilliant episodes amid some that feel clipped or fake, though Hackman provides strong cement.

The critic praises the witty and intelligent character drawings and the film's high IQ, bundles of wit and oodles of fun. He complains that it lacks emotional depth, being a quirk away from real life so that it is not possible to feel moved by the characters.

The film is a daylight answer to the Addams family, revising all theories of domestic harmony with its dysfunctional clan. For all the funny glamour of its retro styling, the communal oddity slowly hits home as more than a freakorama.

The movie is at once endearing and unbearably show-offy, the product of a sensibility formed by age-inappropriate reading. Gene Hackman's performance nearly rescues the film from its own whimsy, but whimsy and the director's self-admiration ultimately triumph.

The film is wittier, richer and more enjoyable than major Oscar contenders of its year, a blood brother to Rushmore. It excels in its literary influences, irony masking deeper sincerity, and heartfelt comedy of unrequited love and disappointment.

The critic finds the film a waste despite its buzz and cast, with most characters stuck in ruts and the script failing to deliver after setting up an eccentric family. Imagination leaks out, leaving a gluttonous mess with a whiff of self-congratulation.