Attorney Royal Tenenbaum (Gene Hackman) raised three child prodigies (Ben Stiller, Gwyneth Paltrow, Luke Wilson) with his wife Etheline (Anjelica Huston) in their Archer Avenue home, then promptly abandoned his family when they needed him most. Two decades later, finding himself in financial straits and his wife set to marry her accountant (Danny Glover), Royal informs his estranged, dysfunctional clan that he is dying of stomach cancer and reinserts himself back into their lives. "The Royal Tenenbaums" is a great looking, moderately amusing film that finds Wes Anderson (who cowrote the film with Owen Wilson, who is also featured) getting too carried away with his own sensibilities and penchant for art direction whose ship is largely righted by a virtuoso performance from Hackman and other veterans in the cast including Huston, Glover, and Bill Murray.
