After nearly thirty years, Wes Anderson has become one of the most notable and distinctive filmmakers of the early 21st century. The Phoenician Scheme, his latest film starring Benicio del Toro as Zsa-Zsa Korda, a ruthless European businessman constantly being besieged by governments, his business partners, and even his children. The core relationship is between Korda and his estranged daughter, Liesl, who is studying to be a nun. Korda wants to be his sole heir and take over his business, but she must help him pull off this one last deal before the many people coming after him succeed in killing him. Bjørn Lund, the tutor to his nine other sons, ends up accompanying them and serving as their assistant and butler throughout their journey.
This type of story feels different than the usual Anderson film, with some darker tones and moments of violence against the perfectly crafted frames we see throughout the film. With that, the film remains true to what you expect from a Wes Anderson film, with its entirely curated, structured world. Each frame you see isn’t trying to make you feel like you’re in a world and forget that there are things like production design, costuming, makeup, and more that make up filmmaking. Its popup book nature feels more tightly crafted than the last two efforts, The French Dispatch or Asteroid City. It has less distraction on having a big company of actors playing a multitude of characters all interacting around a nebulous idea or community. Zsa-Zsa and Liesl have very defined goals.
Benicio del Toro delivers an outstanding performance as this stereotypical mid-20th-century businessman. Seeing Zsa-Zsa slowly melt and accept that there is more to life than just the acquisition of more money, even if it’s for his family, you can see his internal walls breaking all through Del Toro’s physical performance. Mia Threapleton plays Liesl – herself, like her father; even though she doesn’t like him and resents him, she undergoes a similar transition as she spends time with her father.
Witnessing the father and daughter have such a profound impact on each other as they embark on this journey is a captivating part of the film. These people who don’t get family becoming family is a strong core to this film’s theme. Yet it’s Michael Cera who completely steals this film from everyone with his weird character and then a surprising switch halfway through the film. I don’t think he’s gotten such a showcase to show just how good he can be, and here he got one. It’s almost like you can watch Wes Anderson get a new favorite actor to have in future films and projects.
The rest of the cast, which is a star-studded array of cameos, my favorite by far was Tom Hanks and Bryan Cranston as Leland and Reagan, who end up challenging Zsa-Zsa and Riz Ahmed’s Prince Farouk to a game of horse and they don’t know how to shoot a basketball. Jeffrey Wright is always good, and Richard Ayoade plays a freedom fighter named Sergio, who is one of the few who can steal scenes even with Cera on screen.
The film features an otherworldly, afterlife-like setting where Zsa-Zsa goes, which doesn’t work as well on first viewing and can lose some audience members. However, I think it might work better on subsequent viewings of the film. I’ve always liked Anderson’s work since I first saw Bottle Rocket when it first came on home video back in high school, so I’m a bit in the Wes Anderson pocket on my views of his work. While I liked his last two films a lot, even more than most, The Phoenician Scheme is a lot better and worth watching, and it could be said that he is getting back to form.
Rating: A
Level of Enthusiasm: 80%
