The Royal Tenenbaums

Anderson and Wilson's third and most ambitious film concerns a wildly eccentric family of kid geniuses who converge upon their childhood home as unhappy adults, just as their long-estranged father shows up looking for handouts and understanding, and mother is considering remarriage to the family accountant. Book lovers will appreciate the literary allusions--the Tenenbaum house seems lifted from the pages of J.D. Salinger or John Irving--and storybook styling, down to the chapter headings and gruff narration. Inventive script and quirky dialogue carry a story that sometimes becomes cartoonish, as most of the characters are one-dimensional. Some may find the film's overt weirdness a bit much, but there's a heart underneath it all. Hackman's performance as the dastardly, tactless, and yet wholly lovable Royal is a supreme comic feat. Depression has never been so fun.