The Royal Tenenbaums
Template:Short description Template:Good article Template:Use American English Template:Infobox film The Royal Tenenbaums is a 2001 American comedy-drama film directed by Wes Anderson and co-written with Owen Wilson. It stars Danny Glover, Gene Hackman, Anjelica Huston, Bill Murray, Gwyneth Paltrow, Ben Stiller, Luke Wilson, and Owen Wilson. Ostensibly based on a nonexistent novel, and told with a narrative influenced by the writing of J. D. Salinger, it follows the lives of three gifted siblings who experience great success in youth, and even greater disappointment and failure in adulthood. The children's eccentric father, Royal Tenenbaum (Hackman), leaves them in their adolescent years and returns to them after they have grown, claiming he has a terminal illness. He works on reconciling with his children and wife (Huston), from whom he has been separated, but not divorced.
With a variety of influences, including Louis Malle's 1963 film The Fire Within and Orson Welles' 1942 film The Magnificent Ambersons, the story involves themes of the dysfunctional family, lost greatness, and redemption. An absurdist and ironic sense of humor pervades the film, which features a soundtrack subsequently released in two albums. The Royal Tenenbaums was shot in and around New York City, including a house in Harlem used for the Tenenbaum residence. The filmmakers went to efforts to distinguish the film's backgrounds from a recognizable New York, with fashions and sets combining the appearances of different time periods.
After debuting at the New York Film Festival, The Royal Tenenbaums received positive reviews from critics and was Anderson's most financially successful film until 2014's The Grand Budapest Hotel. Hackman won a Golden Globe for Best Actor - Musical or Comedy for his performance at the 59th Golden Globe Awards, and Anderson and Wilson were nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay at the 74th Academy Awards. In 2016, it was included in BBC's 100 Greatest Films of the 21st Century.
Plot
Royal Tenenbaum explains to his three adolescent children, Chas, Margot, and Richie, that he and his wife, Etheline, are separating. Each of the children achieved great success at a young age. Chas is a math and business genius, from whom Royal steals money. Margot, who was adopted, was awarded a grant for a play that she wrote in the ninth grade. Richie is a tennis prodigy and artist who expresses his love for Margot. Eli Cash is the Tenenbaums' neighbor and Richie's best friend. Also part of the Tenenbaum household is Pagoda, the trusted valet.
Twenty-two years later, Royal is kicked out of the hotel where he has been living. The children are in a post-success slump, with Richie traveling the world on a cruise ship, following a breakdown. He writes to Eli revealing his romantic love for Margot. Chas has become overprotective of his sons, Ari and Uzi, following his wife Rachael's death in a plane crash. Margot is married to neurologist Raleigh St. Clair, from whom she hides her smoking and her checkered past. Raleigh is conducting research on a subject named Dudley Heinsbergen, and diagnoses Dudley with Heinsbergen Syndrome.
Etheline's longtime accountant, Henry Sherman, proposes to her. Learning of Henry's proposal via Pagoda, Royal claims that he has stomach cancer to win back his wife's and children's affections. Etheline calls her children home, and Royal moves back in and sets up medical equipment in Richie's room. Royal learns of Chas' overprotective nature and takes his grandsons on an adventure involving shoplifting and dog fighting. On their return, Chas berates him for endangering his boys while Royal accuses Chas of having a nervous breakdown.
Eli, with whom Margot has been having an affair, tells her that Richie told him he loves her. Royal discovers the affair and objects to Margot's treatment of Raleigh, who confides to Richie his suspicions of Margot having an affair. He and Richie hire a private investigator to surveil her. Meanwhile, Henry investigates Royal's cancer claim and discovers his hospital had closed, his doctor does not exist, and that his cancer medication is only Tic Tacs. He confronts Pagoda, Royal's partner in the scheme, and gathers the family to tell them that Royal has been lying about his illness. Afterwards, Royal and Pagoda are kicked out from the family home and into a gypsy cab.
Richie and Raleigh get the private eye's report on Margot, which reveals her history of smoking and sexual promiscuity, including a previous marriage to a Jamaican recording artist. Both men take the news hard, with Richie going into a bathroom, shaving off his hair and beard, and slashing his wrists in an attempt at suicide. Dudley finds Richie and Raleigh rushes him to hospital. As the Tenenbaums sit in the waiting room, Raleigh confronts Margot about her past, reveals that he knows she smokes, and then leaves. Richie checks himself out of the hospital and meets with Margot in his childhood tent to confess his love. They quietly cherish their mutual, secret love and they kiss.
Royal decides that he wants Etheline to be happy, and finally files for a divorce. Before Henry and Etheline's wedding, Eli, high on mescaline, crashes his car into the side of the house. Royal rescues Ari and Uzi just in time, but the boys' dog, Buckley, is killed in the collision. Enraged, Chas chases Eli through the house and tosses him into the neighbor's yard. Eli and Chas agree that they both need help. Chas thanks Royal for saving his sons and for buying them a Dalmatian named Sparkplug from the responding firemen as a replacement for Buckley. Forty-eight hours later, Etheline and Henry are married in a judge's chambers.
Some time later, Margot releases a new play inspired by her family and past events, Raleigh publishes a book about Dudley's condition, Eli checks himself into a drug rehabilitation facility in North Dakota, and Richie begins teaching a junior tennis program. Chas becomes less overprotective of his sons, and Royal seems to have improved his relationship with all his children, and looks to be on better terms with Etheline.
Sometime later, Royal suffers a heart attack and dies at the age of 68. Chas accompanies him in the ambulance on the way to the hospital, and is the only witness to his death. The family attends his funeral, where the epitaph (which he wrote beforehand) reads that he "Died tragically rescuing his family from the wreckage of a destroyed sinking battleship."
Cast
Template:Multiple image The Royal Tenenbaums has an ensemble cast,<ref name="TIMEStaff">Template:Cite magazine</ref><ref name="Redshaw">Template:Cite web</ref> led by Hackman.<ref name="Redshaw" /><ref name="Queenan" /> Alec Baldwin also serves as the narrator.<ref name="Queenan">Template:Cite web</ref> The fictional family and performers are:<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Template:Tree chart/start Template:Tree chart Template:Tree chart Template:Tree chart Template:Tree chart Template:Tree chart Template:Tree chart/end
Production
Development
A starting point for the story's concept was the divorce of director Wes Anderson's own parents, but the screenplay as developed bears little resemblance to his family events.<ref name="Hutchinson" /> French director Louis Malle's works, such as his 1971 Murmur of the Heart, were an influence on Anderson. He particularly drew from The Fire Within (1963), in which a suicidal man tries to meet his friends.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> A line from The Fire Within, translated into English, is said as "I'm going to kill myself tomorrow."Template:Sfn Orson Welles' 1942 film The Magnificent Ambersons was also an influence.<ref name="Jones">Template:Cite web</ref> Anderson acknowledged that he may have subconsciously selected his main set for its reflection of Welles' production.<ref name="Seitz" />
E. L. Konigsburg's book From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler, in which young siblings Claudia and Jamie Kincaid run away to live in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, inspired the film's section of Margot and Richie hiding out in a museum.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Anderson had read the book as a child, and said it long fascinated him.Template:Sfn
J. D. Salinger's characters in the 1961 book Franny and Zooey inspired much of the child prodigy material.Template:Sfn The children of the Glass family in Salinger's work are precocious with an abundance of exceptional talents.Template:Sfn Franny and Zooey also features characters wearing distinctive fashions and a character named Tannenbaum.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> "Tenenbaum" is the surname of an acquaintance of Anderson.<ref name="Marriott">Template:Cite web</ref>
The film Les Enfants Terribles (1950) by Jean-Pierre Melville, partly inspired Richie and Margot's relationship.<ref name="Hutchinson" /> Other inspirations were a childhood friend of Anderson said to love his sister, and the director's interest in the incest taboo. Anderson acknowledged that revising the story to make Margot an adopted daughter made the relationship more believable.<ref name="Anderson">Template:Cite AV media</ref> In creating the characters, Anderson and Owen Wilson used neurologist Oliver Sacks as a model for Raleigh.<ref name="Bitette" /> Anderson based the notion of Eli writing Old Custer on the success of Cormac McCarthy's style of storytelling.<ref name="Hutchinson">Template:Cite web</ref> Wilson and Anderson completed the screenplay in two years, needing an extended period because of the film's complexity.<ref name="Redshaw" />
Casting
Template:Multiple imageGene Hackman was Anderson's choice for Royal. Anderson said, "It was written for him against his wishes".<ref name="Indiewire">Template:Cite web</ref> Hackman was hesitant about accepting the role, citing his lack of understanding of, or commonalities with Royal.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Hackman's agent persuaded him to take the role. While he delayed, Michael Caine was considered for the part,<ref name="Indiewire" /> as was Gene Wilder, according to rumor.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> In 2025, Anderson elaborated that "Gene was very annoyed about the money. He was furious. Also, he didn’t want to do the film anyway. I talked him into it — I just didn’t go away … And everybody else said yes to the salary, so Gene just went with it — and that just became our way. He left without saying goodbye. He was grumpy — we had friction... He didn’t enjoy it. I was probably too young and it was annoying to him. He liked [the movie]. But he told me he didn’t understand it when we were shooting."<ref>Wes Anderson Remembers Gene Hackman Being “Furious” About ‘The Royal Tenenbaums’ Flat-Fee Salary: “We Had Friction”</ref> Bill Murray added that "Gene was really rough on Wes and I used to kind of step in there and just try to defend my friend."<ref>Bill Murray Remembers Gene Hackman As A “Tough Nut” Who Gave Wes Anderson A “Really Rough” Time On ‘The Royal Tenenbaums’</ref>
Hackman's decision to star made it easier for Anderson to attract a cast of high-profile actors.<ref name="Rooney" /> Because Ben Stiller and Gwyneth Paltrow were each available for only a limited time, the shooting schedule had to be organized around them.<ref name="Seitz">Template:Cite web</ref> Etheline Tenenbaum was written with Anjelica Huston in mind.<ref name="Seitz" /> Following a nadir in his career with Larger Than Life and The Man Who Knew Too Little in the 1990s, Murray had opted to focus on supporting parts in offbeat comedies. He played in Anderson's Rushmore and then The Royal Tenenbaums, and has continued to collaborate with him.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Anderson discovered Stephen Lea Sheppard, who played Dudley, through his friend Judd Apatow, as he was acting in Apatow's television series, Freaks and Geeks.<ref name="Anderson" />
Anderson approached Alec Baldwin to narrate the film but, according to Baldwin, didn't want the film to be narrated and wasn't going to use his voiceover for the finished film. The producers were insisting he use this device. When Baldwin shared this story during the Tribeca Film Festival in 2021, while celebrating the film's 20th anniversary, Anderson replied that he had never rejected the voiceover. Author Matt Zoller Seitz pointed out in his book about Wes Anderson that the screenplay always had the narration element.<ref name="BaldwinsNarration">Template:Cite web</ref>
Filming
Around 250 sets were employed during photography. Art director Carl Sprague said the crew avoided sites that would identify New York City, and even altered street signs.<ref name="Kowalski" /> The house used in the film is located at 339 Convent Avenue, near the famous Sugar Hill in the Hamilton Heights section of Harlem in Manhattan.<ref name="McGeveran">Template:Cite web</ref>
For his "quintessential New York story", Anderson went location scouting in May 2000, spotted the house and admired what he described as its "storybook quality".<ref name="McGeveran" /> The owner, Willie Woods, was planning to remodel it, but agreed to delay the project for six months so principal photography could take place.<ref name="McGeveran" /> Anderson said the film's dalmatian mice that populate the house were created by crew adding spots with a Sharpie marker.<ref name="Anderson" />
The Waldorf-Astoria was used for the hotel scenes,<ref name="Anderson" /> while Central Park Zoo stood in for a rain forest.<ref name="Kowalski" /> A United States Navy training ship represented Richie's ship.<ref name="Anderson" /> The crew added 10,000 square feet of AstroTurf at Forest Hills Stadium, to film Richie's tennis match.<ref name="Kowalski" />
During production, Anderson gave Huston photographs of his mother who, like Etheline, was an archaeologist. Huston said, "Wes would send pictures of his mother in aviator jackets or on archaeological digs, and he very specifically wanted me to wear a certain locket. Finally, I asked him, 'Wes, am I playing your mother?'" Anderson replied this was not the case.<ref name="Redshaw" />
Anderson and Huston had a tense relationship with Hackman, who was not always amiable on set.<ref name="Rooney" /> On the first day Hackman and Huston appeared in a scene together, Huston had to slap him. Later she said the slap was real and "I hit him a really good one. I saw the imprint of my hand on his cheek and I thought, he's going to kill me."<ref name="Rooney" /> During young Margot's birthday scene in the opening scenes, Huston's hair caught fire from a birthday candle. Anderson credited Kumar Pallana with extinguishing the blaze before Huston was seriously injured.<ref name="Anderson" />
As shooting continued, the bird used for Mordecai was caught by a citizen of New Jersey, who demanded a price for its return. It was replaced instead by one more white in color.<ref name="Bitette">Template:Cite web</ref>
Themes
Journalist Jesse Fox Mayshark wrote that, like the similarly titled The Magnificent Ambersons, Anderson's story follows an older mother considering remarriage, creating a stir in the family.Template:Sfn Professor Claire Perkins added that in The Royal Tenenbaums, this tension regarding a possible remarriage has minor class and racial elements, with Chas refusing to call Henry by his first name and Royal calling Henry an "old black buck".Template:Sfn Royal also calls Henry "Coltrane" and speaks jive, drawing on racial stereotypes found in media.Template:Sfn To The Magnificent AmbersonsTemplate:' family-drama template, Mayshark wrote that Anderson added his "naturally redemptive instincts", stressing "forgiveness" over villainizing the guilty.Template:Sfn Royal's "redemption" is a central theme.<ref name="Queenan" />Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Professor Carl Plantinga assessed Royal's motives as shifting from "purely selfish" considerations to genuine hopes for reconciliation when he is removed from the home after his false illness is exposed.Template:Sfn Perkins observed that before Royal's death, he had endeared himself to each Tenenbaum in some way.Template:Sfn To do this, he had to force his way back into the family's lives as an intruder professing an intent to "make up for lost time".Template:Sfn The prospect of Royal and Etheline rekindling their marriage is largely regarded as impossible, though she weeps at Royal's false terminal illness, and Royal inquires about her "love life".Template:Sfn In the end, the "ritual community celebration signalling successful social integration" that is a staple of comedy endings comes in the form of Etheline's marriage to Henry rather than a remarriage to Royal, Plantinga wrote.Template:Sfn
Academic Donna Kornhaber theorized that through adultery and pronouncements that "There are no teams", Royal had separated himself from the Tenenbaums; Royal's belief that he is not a Tenenbaum is signaled when he seconds Eli's sentiment that he "always wanted to be a Tenenbaum". However, Kornhaber added that Royal may also view his family members as "external expressions of himself", and this explains why the title refers to them as Royal Tenenbaums.Template:Sfn
Author Mark Browning also identified the dysfunctional family and family happiness as a key theme.Template:Sfn Mayshark commented on the depiction of decline after genius, with all the characters being past the peak of their greatness and now being left "sad, individually and collectively".Template:Sfn Browning assessed the Tenenbaum sons and daughter as child prodigies, with "clear-cut genius status".Template:Sfn Ethel is not negligent as a mother,Template:Sfn fostering her children's talents, though in dispensing money without question she may have spoiled them.Template:Sfn
The children grow up hailed as a "family of geniuses", and when they face failure in adulthood, they turn to nostalgia, with academic Daniel Cross Turner remarking that the word "nostalgia" literally means returning home in pain.Template:Sfn The fact that the Tenenbaums dress alike as children and adults also reveals their nostalgia,Template:Sfn and Turner connected Royal's nostalgia with Dudley's fictional Heinsbergen syndrome symptom, an inability to "tell time".Template:Sfn Professor Whitney Crothers Dilley considered that confrontation between past reputation and the private reality is what moves Margot not to take the word "genius" lightly, and to deny she was ever a genius, despite Royal insisting people called her one.Template:Sfn Although the film ends without any of the characters regaining their lost glory, they form new bonds, particularly between Royal and Chas, or realize secret desires, in the case of Richie and Margot.Template:Sfn
Film Professor Christopher Robe commented on the loss of loved ones, particularly Royal's parents and Chas' wife Rachael, having an impact on the characters' depression. Royal's mother Helen O'Reilly Tenenbaum is rarely named, but her role in shaping Royal and guiding his behavior is profound, with Robe arguing this is signified by a shot of Royal under a painting of Helen in a World War II Red Cross outfit.Template:Sfn Royal's father is never named, but Royal also misses him; Robe further hypothesized that Chas alienating his sons after Rachael's death shows that family history is repeating itself.Template:Sfn
Style
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The storytelling has been described as "absurdist",<ref name="Scheck">Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> ironic,<ref name="TIMEStaff" /><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> and "whimsical".<ref name="Scheck" /> Mayshark wrote that literature shapes the narrative, which is presented as a book with chapters, a prologue and an epilogue.Template:Sfn To the chapter-format of the story, Plantinga added that Baldwin's narration gives "exposition" that "should arouse courtesy" in the viewers for the characters.Template:Sfn Commenting on the literary framework, Browning detailed how the first scene has the camera looking down on the book being checked out at the library, followed by the tone of J. D. Salinger's study of "disillusionment".Template:Sfn Archaic dialogue with the feel of literature ("You've made a cuckold of me") is combined with crass, casual dialogue ("We can swing by her grave, too").Template:Sfn Film scholar Kim Wilkins also characterized lines such as "I'm very sorry for your loss. Your mother was a terribly attractive woman" as "deadpan", "Andersonian", and "unexpected expressions".Template:Sfn Ethel also reveals her fondness for Royal's "little expressions", such as "true blue".Template:Sfn
Mayshark added the style is "imaginatively visual", with detailed sets and an ambiguous time setting, featuring fashions from the 1960s to the present.Template:Sfn Critic Amy Wallace placed it in Anderson's cinematic universe, where "the colors are brighter, the bookshelves are meticulously ordered, the bunk beds aren't just made – they look like you could bounce a silver dollar off them".<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref> Professor Dilley identified the setting with the New York City of the 1970s, matching the backdrop style to depictions of the city in the films The French Connection and Midnight Cowboy; this feel is heightened by music popular in the 1970s, by The Rolling Stones and Paul Simon.Template:Sfn Dilley argued this depiction of a lost New York is connected to "literary history".Template:Sfn Plantinga commented an "illustrative, intentionally artificial tableaux" begins immediately with Baldwin's narration.Template:Sfn
Wes Anderson's brother Eric Chase Anderson sketched proposed appearances for the characters before shooting.<ref name="Seitz" /> The character Richie is presented as a tennis star with headbands and armbands, and sunglasses that virtually hide his face, until his "ritualistic" shaving scene reveals him.<ref name="Sampson">Template:Cite web</ref> The appearance of Margot, played by Paltrow, was modeled after singer Nico.<ref name="EllaAlexander">Template:Cite web</ref> Chas, played by Stiller, appears in a red tracksuit, matching him with Ari and Uzi and suggesting "running away from sadness".<ref name="Sampson" /> The young performers playing Royal and Ethel's sons and daughter wear the same costumes as their adult counterparts, evoking "arrested development".Template:Sfn
With the cinematography, Wes Anderson enjoyed keeping the camera mobile, providing new perspectives in a single take with no actual cut.<ref name="Seitz" /> Analyst Thomas Caldwell judged the cinematography as unusual, comprising "steady symmetrical medium shots" that help the viewer see the characters' emotional anguish more clearly, particularly in their eyes.Template:Sfn Author Gustavo Mercado considered the medium shots a tool to give character and surroundings comparable levels of attention, and to communicate the character's eccentricities and activities. Mercado assessed the scene with Margot smoking in the bathroom to display "carefully chosen lighting, depth of field, wardrobe, body language, and ... composition".Template:Sfn The opening credits use "medium close-up" shots with each character looking towards the direction of the camera, contributing to the literary narrative as a "Cast of Characters".Template:Sfn
The paintings in Eli's apartment are by Mexican artist Miguel Calderón.Template:Sfn Font designer Mark Simonson noted Anderson makes extensive use of typography, in particular Futura and its variation Futura Bold.<ref name="Simonson">Template:Cite web</ref> For characters who are not biologically Tenenbaums, such as Raleigh, other typefaces are used, such as Helvetica on the covers of the character's books.<ref name="Simonson" />
Soundtrack
Template:Main Template:Listen Anderson declared The Royal Tenenbaums to be "the most complex, ambitious musical piece I've ever worked on".Template:Sfn The soundtrack features rock songs from the 1960s through the 1990s. Songs used include Paul Simon's "Me and Julio Down by the Schoolyard", Van Morrison's "Everyone", John Lennon's "Look at Me", Nick Drake's "Fly", the Mutato Muzika Orchestra version of the Beatles' "Hey Jude", "These Days" by Nico, and two songs by the Rolling Stones.Template:Sfn<ref name="Hughes">Template:Cite web</ref> Erik Satie's "Gymnopédie No. 1" is also used in the film,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> as is "Christmas Time is Here", the iconic song from A Charlie Brown Christmas (1965) by Vince Guaraldi.<ref name="Jones" /> According to the marketing of the film, particular musical instruments are matched with each character, with the association established in the introductory narration and continuing to the conclusion.Template:Sfn
In early test screenings of the film, the end of the movie with the characters leaving the cemetery in slow motion was scored with "I'm Looking Through You" by The Beatles, but because of the death of George Harrison before release, securing the rights was not pursued. In public screenings held for critics and pre-release audiences days before the scheduled opening, the sequence was scored to "Sloop John B" by The Beach Boys. However, in the final release version, and all subsequent releases on physical media, streaming, and television, the song that closes the film and transitions to the credits is Van Morrison's "Everyone."
There have been two soundtrack album releases for the film,Template:Sfn though not all of the songs used in the film appear on the albums.Template:Sfn<ref name="Hughes" />
In 2002, the soundtrack was re-released containing the score, composed by Mark Mothersbaugh, along with more of the songs. The Rolling Stones' songs "She Smiled Sweetly" and "Ruby Tuesday" were omitted for lack of rights.Template:Sfn
Release
The film premiered at the New York Film Festival on October 5, 2001, which had previously screened Anderson's Rushmore in 1998.<ref name="AOScott" /> Distributed by Touchstone Pictures,<ref name="Knegt">Template:Cite web</ref> it opened in New York City and Los Angeles in December 2001.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> In February 2002, it was screened at the 52nd Berlin International Film Festival.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
To mark a decade since its debut, Anderson and his stars returned to the New York Film Festival for a screening of The Royal Tenenbaums in fall 2011.<ref name="Jagernauth">Template:Cite web</ref>
Home media
The Criterion Collection released the film on DVD following its theatrical run. It released the film on Blu-ray in 2012.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> It was released on Ultra HD Blu-ray by Criterion on September 30, 2025, as part of the ten film collection The Wes Anderson Archive: Ten Films, Twenty-Five Years.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Reception
Box office
On its opening weekend, The Royal Tenenbaums made $276,891 in five theaters, or around $55,396 at each venue.<ref name="Knegt" /> By February 2002, it doubled RushmoreTemplate:'s total gross at the U.S. box office.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
The film finished its run on June 20, 2002, with a gross of $83,364,010 in North America. It made $19,077,240 in other territories, for a worldwide total of $102,441,250.<ref name="BOM" /> With the final $102 million gross, it remained Anderson's most financially successful film when it returned to the New York Film Festival in 2011.<ref name="Jagernauth" /> The Grand Budapest Hotel surpassed it in 2014.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Critical response
Template:RT prose Template:MC film Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "C–" on an A+ to F scale.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
At its premiere at the New York Film Festival, A.O. Scott wrote in The New York Times that it eventually won him over as charming, and that Hackman brought "quick precision and deep seriousness [that] nearly rescue[d] this movie from its own whimsy".<ref name="AOScott">Template:Cite web</ref> VarietyTemplate:'s Todd McCarthy described the film, "As richly conceived as the novel it pretends to be."<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Richard Schickel of Time wrote, "As with Anderson's Rushmore, there's a certain annoying preciousness to this film—it's not so consistently wise or amusing as he thinks it is—but it has its moments".<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref> Roger Ebert awarded it three-and-a-half stars, admiring how viewers can be ambivalent toward the events in the story.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The San Francisco ChronicleTemplate:'s Mick LaSalle was enthusiastic, praising the film as "like no other, an epic, depressive comedy, with lots of ironic laughs and a humane and rather sad feeling at its core".<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Anthony Lane commented in The New Yorker on the setting, which did not truly feel like New York, but "a step-city, or a city-in-law", and said that "the communal oddity" gradually won him over.<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref> Peter Travers in Rolling Stone found all the cast great in different ways, while singling out Hackman.<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref> L.A. WeeklyTemplate:'s Manohla Dargis wrote it had enough laughs to be classified as a comedy, but it contained "a deep vein of melancholia to its drollery".<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The GuardianTemplate:'s Joe Queenan embraced it as a "bizarre redemption tale".<ref name="Queenan" />
Some critics disagreed about the success of the film and its style. New YorkTemplate:'s Peter Rainer wrote, "Anderson is something of a prodigy himself, and he's riddled with talent, but he hasn't figured out how to be askew and heartfelt at the same time."<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> In the Los Angeles Times, Kenneth Turan assessed the film as indulging too far in Anderson's vision, creating an unknown world.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> In his 2015 Movie Guide, Leonard Maltin gave it two-and-a-half stars out of four, complimenting the eccentricity, but finding no storyline.Template:Sfn
Time listed Royal Tenenbaums in its Top 10 Troubled Genius Films list in 2009, comparing Anderson's characters to Salinger's, in an "ultimately touching package".<ref name="TIMEStaff" /> In 2013, Time also named Henry Sherman as one of 10 memorable accountant characters in film history, citing his decency, success as an author and lack of confidence in his pursuit of Etheline.<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref> In 2014, The Huffington Post journalist Lisa Thomson evaluated it as one of Anderson's best films, and that finding laughs in divorce was a highlight.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> In 2017, Vanity Fair cited Richie's tennis meltdown scene as one of the best tennis scenes in cinema history, making an analogy to Björn Borg.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
In 2008, a poll taken by Empire ranked The Royal Tenenbaums as the 159th greatest film ever made.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> A 2016 poll of international critics assembling BBC's 100 Greatest Films of the 21st Century also voted it one of the 100 greatest motion pictures since 2000.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Hackman has received kudos for his performance.<ref name="Rooney">Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref> In 2015, IndieWire named Royal as Anderson's most memorable character, crediting Hackman for bringing the character beyond the director's norm; the same list also named Margot "the ur-Anderson female" character.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> In June 2025, the film ranked number 21 on The New York TimesTemplate:' list of "The 100 Best Movies of the 21st Century" and number 28 on the "Readers' Choice" edition of the list.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> In July 2025, it ranked number 65 on Rolling StoneTemplate:'s list of "The 100 Best Movies of the 21st Century."<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Accolades
The film received a nomination at the 74th Academy Awards for Best Original Screenplay. CNN reported that it had been considered as a possibility for nominations for Best Cinematography, Best Art Direction and Best Actor for Hackman.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Hackman did win the Golden Globe for Best Actor in a Musical or Comedy at the 59th Golden Globe Awards, but was unable to accept the award in person.<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref>
Legacy
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The narration and the way the film follows each family member was reprised in Fox's critically acclaimed television sitcom Arrested Development. Jason Bateman, who stars on the series as Michael Bluth, describes the show as "The Royal Tenenbaums shot like COPS".<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Arrested Development creator and head writer Mitchell Hurwitz said that when he saw The Royal Tenenbaums, he already had the idea for Arrested Development in mind and thought, "Well, that's it, I can't do that anymore", but subsequently changed his mind.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Alec Baldwin, the narrator, has effusively praised the film, including it in his Top 10 Criterion Collection and calling it "arguably one of the most original movies, in tone and style, since Robert Altman's M*A*S*H".<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> He also modeled his performance of the character Jack Donaghy on the television series 30 Rock after Hackman's speech and movements as Royal Tenenbaum.<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref>
The Tenenbaums' style has been cited as an influence in fashion design, and Margot Tenenbaum was described by Vogue as the "muse of the season" for Spring/Summer 2015 collections.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Spanish art historian Eugenia Tenenbaum took her pseudonym from the film.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
References
Bibliography
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External links
- Pages with broken file links
- 2001 films
- 2001 comedy-drama films
- Films about adultery in the United States
- American comedy-drama films
- Films about dysfunctional families
- Films about grief
- Films directed by Wes Anderson
- Films featuring a Best Musical or Comedy Actor Golden Globe winning performance
- Films produced by Barry Mendel
- Films produced by Scott Rudin
- Films produced by Wes Anderson
- Films scored by Mark Mothersbaugh
- Films set in 2000
- Films set in 2001
- Films set in New York City
- Films shot in New York City
- Films with screenplays by Wes Anderson
- Films with screenplays by Owen Wilson
- Media containing Gymnopedies
- Films about self-harm
- Touchstone Pictures films
- 2000s English-language films
- 2000s American films
- English-language comedy-drama films