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The Royal Tenenbaums

The Criterion Collection | 2-Disc Set


The Royal Tenenbaums (The Criterion Collection)Movie B- | Video  A | Audio B+ | Extras B+ | Defective DVD

Gene Hackman, Anjelica Huston, Ben Stiller, Gwyneth Paltrow, 
Luke Wilson, Owen Wilson, Bill Murray, and Danny Glover
director Wes Anderson | Touchstone Pictures (Buena Vista)
2001 | Family Drama | R | 110 minutes
Region 1 | DVD-9 | anamorphic widescreen 2.40:1 aspect ratio
DTS 5.1
| Dolby Digital 5.1

Summary: The Royal Tenenbaums is, shall I say, a unique family drama.  Gene Hackman plays Royal Tenebaum, the head of household who is kicked out by his wife Etheline (Anjelica Huston) when their children were still very young.  They have three children: older son Chas (Ben Stiller), adopted daughter Margot (Gwyneth Paltrow), and younger son Richie (Luke Wilson).  Etheline devotes her life to raising their children and is very successful in doing so.  All three become very successful professionally: Chas is a successful inventor and businessman, Margot is an inventive playwright, and Richie is a top-seed tennis player.  Years later, when Royal becomes broke and is evicted from his hotel, he becomes the estranged patriarch who wants to move back into the family home and re-build his relationships with his children and grandchildren.  As a family drama, The Royal Tenenbaums has a quite unique storyline and is frequently weird.  The characters are very well developed and quite a few are eccentric.  To my delight, the ending is quite satisfying.  If you're into family dramas, and eccentric ones at that, you may find this movie quite enjoyable.  But if you like "mainstream" family dramas, Tenenbaums is probably not for you, even with this star-studded cast.

Technically, the picture quality of this DVD is superb.  The sound quality is probably very good, though it's difficult to tell with the conservative sound design.  Case in point: though this DVD features a DTS soundtrack option, this is one of few DVDs where the DTS soundtrack made virtually no difference.  I also had some difficulty viewing the feature film DVD (disc 1) on my Sony DVP-S7700 reference DVD player.  The playback rudely froze twice, near the end of Chapter 1 and at the beginning of Chapter 12.  This also occurred when I used the Panasonic DVD-RV32.

Special Features: audio commentary by director Wes Anderson; cut scenes (deleted scenes); outtakes; interviews with Gene Hackman, Anjelica Huston, Ben Stiller, Gwyneth Paltrow, Luke Wilson, Owen Wilson, Bill Marray, and Danny Glover; "The Peter Bradley Show" featuring interviews with supporting cast members; "With the Filmmaker: Portraits by Albert Maysles"; "The Art of the Movie: Young Riche's murals and paintings, still photos by set photographer James Hamilton, book and magazine covers, Studio 360 radio segment on painter Miguel Calderon; storyboards; theatrical trailers; 14-page fold-out booklet

DVD released on 7/9/2002 | Reviewed 9/20/2002

List $29.99 | online $22.44 | order from Amazon.com, Buy.com

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Additional Notes: Unless we specify otherwise, the video and audio quality are very good when their grades are "A-" or better.  Only the highest number of channels of surround sound format is listed (e.g., Dolby Digital 5.1).  If there are both Dolby Digital 5.1 and DTS 5.1 soundtracks, then both are listed.  All DVD-Video discs are backwards compatible with stereo-only playback systems.

Let us know what you think about this DVD review, write to us at Staff@TimeForDVD.com.

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Associated equipment used in evaluation: Sony DVP-S7700 reference DVD player, Sony KP-61V45 61" rear projection TV (4:3 screen aspect ratio), Sony ES STR-V444ES A/V receiver, four B&W CDM 9NTs as left/right main speakers and left/right surrounds, B&W CDM CNT center channel speaker, Monster Cable M-series S-Video cable MSV-500, Monster Cable Interlink LightSpeed 100 (Toslink) optical cable, Monster Cable Interlink 400 MKII interconnects, Monster Cable Original speaker cables in bi-wire configuration with Monster Cable twist-on gold-plated banana plug connectors, Lovan Sovereign T HiFi audio rack, and Sony MDR-V600 studio monitor headphones.  Our home theater equipment was calibrated with the Video Essentials DVD.

Be sure to check out our Top 10 DVDs of the year 2001 and our list of this year's Oscar winners on DVD.

 

 

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