Royal

In America today one of the pre-eminent adjectives describing families is dysfunctional. Your family is somehow out of a normative grouping if in fact they are “functional”. That ideology is one of the issues emphasized in Wes Anderson’s The Royal Tenenbaums. I suppose I need to ask about the incorporation of humor into such an investigation, particularly in regards to how campy or over-the-top some of the characterizations become. But aside from that, or rather hidden somewhere underneath all of that is a poignancy and a sense of salvation or redemption that is oftentimes never realized on Maury or Rikki or Jerry. I guess my question is or questions are: how are we supposed to take or juxtapose any single aspect of family emphasized in the film with our own pre-conceived notions of family, or rationalize the togetherness of any or all of these conflicting themes? Is it believable, realistic—...