Radical reinterpretation of The Royal Tenenbaums [Spoilers]

Citizen Mane · July 14th, 2006, 05:23 PM

So, I finished watching this the other night. I hadn't seen it since it was in the theatres, and I started wondering about the way the movie kind of swings on the attempted suicide by Richie. I'm not sure that where I went with it was really all that compelling, but it does change the film's meaning pretty drastically.

Basically, my assumption was that Richie does not survive the suicide or we never see the actual aftermath -- the last point of the movie that takes place in actuality is when Dudley finds Richie on the floor of Raleigh's bathroom. That's it. From there on in it's all in Richie's head, and it's all wish fulfillment for him. It's like the splice in Vanilla Sky. I guess I kind of thought this for a few reasons: he checks himself out of the hospital and is wearing all white (ghost?) and when he returns to the house, he doesn't go in through the front door, but climbs up through a window, which is kind of unusual, even if you don't want to wake people. And after that, everything basically works out (and the film gets a touch surreal at some moments -- Eli crashing the wedding) for everyone. It just struck me that it was possibly the representation of a young man's dreams of how he wishes his life would have been or could be.

I'm not sure it's a compelling interpretation (I don't find it particularly satisfying, to be honest) or particularly well-explained here, nor do I think it's what Anderson intended, but it struck me as one that was out there.

Has anyone else watched a movie and come away from it with an interpretation that's kind of off-base or unusual?

big poppa k · July 14th, 2006, 05:49 PM

Huh. You know, that does make some sense. That hadn't even occurred to me.

I do know that the movie is loosely based on characters from J.D. Salinger's books about the Glass Family. Gwyneth Paltrow's character is loosely based on Nico from The Velvet Underground. I always felt the whole movie was basically Wes Anderson's take on a Woody Allen movie.

Fun fact: This movie is the main inspiration for the cult sitcom Arrested Development.

Citizen Mane · July 14th, 2006, 05:59 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kiznit

I always felt the whole movie was basically Wes Anderson's take on a Woody Allen movie.

Absolutely. Like Allen's New York films, Tenenbaums is clearly stuck in a weird mid-late 1970s NYC that doesn't necessarily exist anymore (if it ever really did). That's one of the things that I like so much about it; it's kind of like a little fairy tale/storybook movie with its own internal logic and rules. AO Scott said that it was the result of a child spending too much time in the adult literature section of the library. I think that's fair. Sometimes I think it's like someone adapted the New Yorker into film form and left out all the articles on world affairs and politics, while focusing mainly on the cartoons.

Pielorinho · July 14th, 2006, 06:08 PM

It's not nearly so literate nor charming a reinterpretation as yours, but I greatly admired the "show must go on" mentality in Francis Ford Coppola's Dracula. When the actor hired to play Jonathan Harker fell ill, rather than cancel the movie, they grabbed the nearest intern on the set, gave him a teleprompter, and had him fill in the scenes. Sure, he had no idea how to act, and he sort of stumbled through the movie reading his lines--but at least we were able to see the movie, and see the actors performing around him; because of that kid's courage, we knew what lines the actors were responding to. I hope they gave him a big bonus for being willing to make a fool of himself in front of the camera like that.

Daniel

Citizen Mane · July 14th, 2006, 06:11 PM

To be fair, you could have cast a young Pacino as Harker, and he wouldn't have been able to save that film. Coppola doesn't even come close to subtlety with that film (pick up a bigger hammer, Francis, I'm not sure the people in the cheap seats know that the story's about sex).