With over a dozen films made across three decades, Wes Anderson has very much honed what it is to be considered an auteur; he’s possibly even bent the term to his own liking with his distinct style. And it’s that particular style that is once again on display in The Phoenician Scheme, a bizarre, nonsense-embracing comedy that prescribes to a style over substance temperament – something the director has oft been accused of – but elicits enough laughter across its 100 minutes to deem it one of his more enjoyable titles.
From the opening moments, the farcical nature of The Phoenician Scheme is on full display, with it setting itself around the 1950s and the frequent assassination attempts on the life of Zsa-zsa Korda (Benicio del Toro, a riot), an aviation tycoon who will hardly let such death threats deter him from his life mission. That mission involves overhauling the expansive infrastructure of Phoenicia, but there’s a board of business rivals – overseen by Excaliber (Rupert Friend) – who have other ideas, and so they fix the price of core materials that Zsa-zsa needs to execute his plan, leading to the desperate tycoon to meet with a number of underground fixers and investors to cover the missing funds.
This plan of Zsa-zsa’s is little more than excuse for Anderson to delight in his eccentricities and allow a variety of familiar names and faces to pop up briefly for a series of comedic oddities, with the likes of Tom Hanks, Bryan Cranston, Scarlett Johansson and Benedict Cumberbatch all earning extended cameos throughout. Hanks and Cranston as a duo of basketball-enthused investors are earlier in the piece when The Phoenician Scheme feels far more entertaining, whilst Johansson is surprisingly wasted as Cousin Hilda, a distant Korda relative, who agrees to marry him, but refuses to invest any monetary assets in his scheme. Cumberbatch is perhaps the biggest misstep, with his turn as Uncle Nubar, a particularly nefarious fellow, who has a contemptuous relationship with Zsa-zsa, feeling even too theatrical for the temperament of such an Anderson feature; also, given that he arrives at the tail-end of the film, when it has very much run out of steam, his overt dramatics fail to prove enjoyably camp.
There’s also a series of cutaways to the afterlife – somewhere Zsa-zsa briefly visits during one of his many assassination attempts – where a council (including Bill Murray‘s God, Willem Dafoe, F. Murray Abraham, Hope Davis and Charlotte Gainsbourg) weigh up his virtue that never feels as deep or observed as intended, but del Toro’s utter commitment to the cause keeps The Phoenician Scheme moderately on track, with Mia Threapleton absolutely dominating as his sole daughter, a devoted nun, who continually lifts proceedings whenever it entirely threatens to be swallowed by a sense of pretentiousness.
The deadpan, expressionless lacing that Anderson ensembles usually adhere to is once again on full display, and if it’s a mentality you’ve appreciated, there’s no reason The Phoenician Scheme won’t similarly hit for those susceptible to it. del Toro, Threapleton and Michael Cera as a demented trio – the latter enjoying himself as a Norwegian entomologist hired to tutor – are the main reason the film succeeds where it does, with del Toro, in particular, joyously excelling as a gifted comedian who proves never too vain to sell a sight gag.
After the more divisive efforts of Anderson’s of late – namely Asteroid City and The French Dispatch – The Phoenician Scheme, as bizarre as it can be, is ultimately one of his more accessible titles. It starts out much stronger than it ends, and its interludes frustratingly break momentum, but when it lets del Toro fly free and showcases Threapleton’s impassive strength, there’s enjoyable bouts of humour to be had. It won’t convert those opposed to Anderson’s style, but it should satisfy the devoted fans who have stuck with him through much lesser outcomes.
THREE STARS (OUT OF FIVE)
The Phoenician Scheme is now screening in Australian theatres.
