The Royal Tenenbaums
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Synopsis
Royal Tenenbaum (Gene Hackman) and his wife, Etheline (Anjelica Huston), had three children—Chas, Margot, and Richie—and then they separated. Chas (Ben Stiller) started buying real estate in his early teens and seemed to have an almost preternatural understanding of international finance. Margot (Gwyneth Paltrow) was a playwright and received a Braverman Grant of $50,000 in the ninth grade. Richie (Luke Wilson) was a junior champion tennis player and won the U.S. Nationals three years in a row. Virtually all memory of the brilliance of the young Tenenbaums was subsequently erased by two decades of betrayal, failure, and disaster. The Royal Tenenbaums is a hilarious, touching, and brilliantly stylized study of melancholy and redemption from Wes Anderson.
Picture 9/10
Wes Anderson’s The Royal Tenenbaums gets a much needed upgrade on Blu-ray from Criterion, who present the film in a new 1080p/24hz high-definition digital transfer in its original aspect ratio of about 2.40:1 on a dual-layer disc.
I recalled that the original DVD’s transfer, from 2002, was problematic, and in the review for the DVD I wasn’t terribly impressed with it but I don’t think I was overly harsh. Yet revisiting it again recently I was horrified by the level of compression noise in it; it’s far, far worse than I originally remembered. I’m pretty sure Disney had more of hand on that transfer, since the disc was essentially a Disney release put together by Criterion’s team. This possibly explains why it’s such a dud whereas most of Criterion’s other SD transfers for newer films usually looked remarkable, even ten years ago.
I feared Criterion might just deliver a high-def version of that transfer for this Blu-ray but I don’t think that’s the case as this high-definition transfer looks far too good to have been the basis for the previous DVD’s. Criterion’s Blu-ray edition delivers a far more film like and cleaner look, the compression noise that plagued the previous DVD now gone. Fine film grain remains but is never heavy and looks natural for the most part. The image is sharp with crisp, fine details, even the fine cross patterns on the wedding tuxes at the end coming through crystal clear. The film has a warmer palette, which leads to yellowish skin tones but I’m pretty sure this is how the film is supposed to look. Colours are bright and vivid, with reds especially impressive, and the blues, specifically Danny Glover’s blazer, looking rich and deep. Black levels are also solid. There’s some scenes where blooming can occur but I also feel this is how the film is intended to look.
I noticed some shimmering in tighter patterns but it’s a minor concern and only occurs a few times. Otherwise the transfer is clean, and the source print looks to be in better shape than what the DVD presented and I don’t recall a single blemish.
In all it’s a drastic improvement over the previous DVD and for all those horrified by what they’re seeing in that edition’s transfer they'll want to look into this Blu-ray as the video improvement is worth the upgrade alone.
The Royal Tenenbaums - Screen Captures
Audio 8/10
The film receives an upgraded DTS-HD MA 5.1 surround track. The track still remains front heavy with most dialogue and sound effects coming from those three speakers, but there are some noticeable effects in the rears and when the film’s great soundtrack kicks in it fills the environment naturally. When it comes to sound I admittedly have trouble discerning big differences between tracks sometimes but with this track I was able to detect a vast improvement over the old DVD’s DTS and Dolby Digital tracks. This track is far sharper and there are more subtle effects here, along with bits in the music, which I didn’t notice in either of the DVD’s tracks. Dialogue is crisp, the music is loud and crystal clear, and it makes decent use of bass. The film doesn’t call for a robust track, but I was actually quite impressed with what Criterion has given us here.
Extras 7/10
Most of everything has made it over from the Criterion DVD, though a couple of things didn’t.
Again the supplements begin with an audio commentary by Wes Anderson. It is a decent and informative commentary from the director, though I wish that we maybe got a little less Wes and maybe had some cast members thrown in there, or at least writing partner Owen Wilson, who did participate on the Rushmore commentary. Still Anderson offers quite a bit of information on the background of the film (The Magnificent Ambersons being a key influence not all that surprisingly,) how it came to be, points out friends/family, and offers some anecdotes from the set. I found it interesting enough and do recommend fans of the film or Anderson to give it a listen but I find I prefer his commentaries much more when others are sharing the work.
The remaining supplements are found under the “Supplements” section. The big one would be the roughly 27-minute documentary on the making of the film, called With the Filmmaker by Albert Maysles. It offers only a little insight into the making of the film, including Anderson's handling of the actors (and the use of the falcon in the movie), work on the design and his other duties as the camera follows him around. It’s not your typical making-of, sort of hanging back and never getting up close. It’s decent but I think I prefer the similar documentary found on the later release for The Life Aquatic.
The interviews with the actors in a separate section offers more compelling stuff. It gives interviews with Gene Hackman, Anjelica Huston, Ben Stiller, Gwyneth Paltrow, Luke Wilson, Owen Wilson, Bill Murray and Danny Glover. All together they run about 27 minutes. Each actor gives a brief synopsis on their characters and why they did the movie. It's not your typical "everyone is so great!" material you might be used to. This is actual insight, not always positive. I'm surprised to hear Hackman almost turned down the role, only because it was pretty much tailored for him (which he hates). Stiller’s interview is also surprisingly insightful. All good stuff.
2 deleted scenes are also included. The first one is very funny, but was cut to make Eli Cash a loner, as the scene shows his family (Rushmore's Olivia Williams appears in the scene) and the second is an extra scene between Anjelica Huston and Danny Glover. In total they run about 2 minutes.
The Peter Bradley Show is a joke supplement, based on a character who briefly appears in the film. This 26-minute send up of The Charlie Rose Show (which was an extra on the Rushmore DVD) is a rather funny bit, having Peter Bradley interview the lesser known actors from the film, including Stephan Dignan, Sanjay Matthew, Kumar Pallana, Dipak Pallana, and Brian Tenenbaum. I found it very funny, as Bradley (played by actor Larry Pine) is, to put it bluntly, an idiot. It's an amusing and clever little addition to the set.
The section labeled Scrapbook presents a number of galleries. We get a large collection of stills taken on the set followed by a section about painter Miguel Calderón, who painted the paintings that appear in Eli’s apartment. There is an audio segment found here from a radio show called Studio 360, which is a 4-minute piece that goes over his work and even presents interviews with the artist. There is also a stills gallery presenting the work from the series that appears in the film. We also get a few storyboards and excerpts from the script, as well as photos of Richie Tenenbaum’s various paintings of Margot and the murals that are spread across his room. It then concludes with a still gallery of all of the book and magazine covers that appear in the film.
Unlike the still gallery on Criterion’s Blu-ray for Rushmore, and many of the galleries in Criterion’s Blu-ray upgrades sadly, it appears all of the photos have made it here from the DVD. The only thing that didn’t make it is close-ups of Calderón’s paintings. But that’s not a serious concern since all of the photos and stills are presented in high-definition, so clarity is much better. This is best displayed in the stills of the script, which can be hard to make out and come off blurry in the DVD’s gallery, but are all crisp and clean here.
The disc then comes with the same two theatrical trailers, presented one after the other as before.
The release also comes with the same two inserts that came with the DVD, one featuring a lengthy but excellent essay on the film by Kent Jones. The other insert features a note by Anderson and what look like designs for the Tenenbaum’s house’s various rooms. It looks like this insert has everything from the old insert but it is laid out a little differently to accommodate the smaller scale of the Blu-ray case.
Sadly none of the Easter Eggs from the DVD have made it over. This is a shame because there were a few rather humourous bloopers and behind-the-scene moments presented. Also missing is Ben Stiller’s introduction to the supplements. I’m disappointed these didn’t make it but at least all of the main supplements made it over.
In all they’re a strong set of supplements, though, like how I felt with Rushmore, it would have been great if we could have received some sort of retrospective from everyone involved or maybe a critical slant ten years after the film’s release. But for fans of the film and Anderson they’re a decent set.
Closing
Unfortunately this new Blu-ray edition offers no upgrade to the supplements. In fact you lose all of the Easter Eggs from the previous DVD. But this edition comes with a high recommendation just for the video and audio upgrade, both of which offer nice and noticeable upgrades, the video specifically.
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