‘The Phoenician Scheme' finds Wes Anderson at his sweetest and most visually captivating
'The Phoenician Scheme' is Wes Anderson's 12th feature-length movie and each successive film seems more hermetically sealed than the last. Yet something else interesting is happening with his work. As he has creatively sharpened visually, he seems to have emotionally softened.
In fact, this latest film might be his sweetest.
Set in 1950, 'The Phoenician Scheme,' co-written by Anderson and Roman Coppola, stars Benicio del Toro as Zsa-Zsa Korda, a multi-millionaire capitalist whose questionable business practices has made him far more enemies than friends. When the movie opens, he is surviving another of his many plane crashes, this one part of a string of assassination attempts by former employees.
Meanwhile, the U.S. government has imposed a steep tariff on a simple bolt that is crucial to his worldwide construction plans. He must frantically try and renegotiate business deals from his eccentric partners in hopes of getting them to share a greater percentage of the costs so he doesn't go bankrupt.
Given he is under threat of assassination and he doesn't trust his partners, he reconnects with his estranged daughter, Liesl (Mia Threapleton), a nun. He is prepared to make her his sole heir to protect his interests, and takes her and a tutor, Bjorn (Michael Cera of ' Sacramento ') on a globe-trotting trip to meet with his partners. Among them are Leland and Reagan, played by Tom Hanks and Bryan Cranston, respectively.
Zsa-Zsa is a first-class jerk, and Liesl doesn't take any guff. She might be the first person to stand up to him. She's fearless, and God is on her side. He respects that, and gradually feels something for his daughter that comes dangerously close to fatherly love, a new concept.
Of course, describing the plot of a Wes Anderson movie is like giving directions down Lombard Street to a tourist. The goal isn't the destination but the experience; just revel in the unconventional curves and characters you meet along the way.
There's Prince Farouk (Riz Ahmed), Marseille Bob (Mathieu Amalric), Cousin Hilda (Scarlett Johansson) and a ship's captain (Jeffrey Wright). Benedict Cumberbatch, Willem Dafoe, Bill Murray, Hope Davis and F. Murray Abraham also pop up in various roles.
Despite the galaxy of A-listers, most of whom are Anderson regulars, the real stars are the sets by production designer Adam Stockhausen and the art direction team led by Esther Schreiner. 'The Phoenician Scheme,' mostly filmed at Babelsberg Film Studio near Berlin, is another Anderson visual feast.
Consider that his live action movies from the 2000s, 'The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou' and ' The Darjeeling Limited,' made extensive use of real-life locations — Italy and India, respectively. In contrast, his work in the 2020s has been largely filmed in studios on intricately designed sets inspired by the mid-20th century.
Counterintuitively, however, this recent work seems to suggest a disillusionment with modern society.
' The French Dispatch ' (2021), which focused on writers preparing the last issue of a popular magazine, is an ode to print journalism. In parodying the nuclear fears and UFO craze of the 1950s, ' Asteroid City ' (2023) touches on postpandemic fears. Now 'The Phoenician Scheme' assesses the damage done by the rich and powerful, who are often narcissists. Anderson doesn't seem like a guy who digs the 21st century.
If there's hope in these films, it's in a reestablishment of human connection. As father and daughter, Del Toro and Threapleton (daughter of Kate Winslet), establish real chemistry as people willing to change for the better.
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