| Worth seeing: | for Mia Threapleton's nun and Michael Cera's entomologist, rather than the Who's Who of Hollywood that fills the plodding plot |
| Director: | Wes Anderson |
| Featuring: | Benicio Del Toro, Mia Threapleton, Michael Cera, Alex Jennings, Benedict Cumberbatch, Bill Murray, Bryan Cranston, Donald Sumpter, F Murray Abraham, Hope Davis, Jason Watkins, Jeffrey Wright, Mathieu Amalric, Richard Ayoade, Riz Ahmed, Rupert Friend, Scarlett Johansson, Steve Park, Tom Hanks, Willem Dafoe |
| Length: | 101 minutes |
| Certificate: | 15 |
| Country: | US |
| Released: | 23rd May 2025 |
WHAT’S IT ABOUT?
Phoenician business mogul Zsa-Zsa Korda (Benicio Del Toro) has survived enough assassination attempts that he knows it’s time to prepare for the future. He tells his estranged daughter Liesl (Mia Threapleton) that he is leaving his empire to her – on a trial basis), but she would rather become a nun.
Trying to get his affairs in order, Zsa-Zsa visits his investors and business partners to try to raise enough money to fill “the gap” – the deficit between what he has and what he needs.
His friends seem to hate him as much as his enemies and one by one, they seem to be trying to make his life harder, rather than easier, as he tries to chip away at their resolve to build up his funds and secure his legacy.
Under the watchful eye of his new executive assistant Bjørn (Michael Cera), Zsa-Zsa and Liesl travel the nation, meeting increasingly grotesque business partners and distant relatives, to try to negotiate new deals – and avoid further assassination attempts.
WHAT’S IT LIKE?
For nearly 30 years, Wes Anderson has been developing his unique visual and comic style through a range of increasingly arch films that have both delighted and frustrated critics. At his best, films such as Rushmore, Moonrise Kingdom, The Grand Budapest Hotel, The Royal Tenenbaums and Fantastic Mr. Fox have used an increasing pool of loyal actors and joyously examined the peculiarities of the world around us.
Through both live action humans and animated animals, Anderson has explored the peculiarities of life and relationships – with an increasingly bold colour palette, production design making each set look more like a work of art than a location and performances increasingly removed from reality. And while the characters are often fun, they don’t always fit the narrative – we’re expected to root for Korda, despite being told he’s a ruthless businessman, worthy of assassination.
When his idiosyncratic style works, his films are among the most satisfying examples of creative storytelling, but when he pushes the boundaries too much, the style supersedes any substance and it becomes increasingly frustrating to try to follow the narrative while staying inside his world.
The Phoenician Scheme has its moments, with a handful of particularly entertaining performances – Mia Threapleton’s deadpan nun and Michael Cera’s kooky entomologist-cum-executive-assistant are among the highlights. But the film is so jam-packed with cameos – from both Anderson favourites and newbies – that the plodding plot becomes secondary to playing Spot The Actor; Willem Dafoe, Tom Hanks, Bryan Cranston, Rupert Friend, Richard Ayoade, Benedict Cumberbatch, Scarlett Johansson and, of course, Bill Murray are just some of the Who’s Who of Hollywood.
And in addition to the story becoming lost behind the beauty-parade of stars, the arch humour is pushed to such levels of quirkiness that there’ll be more eye-rolling than belly-laughs.