Wes Anderson knows exactly what he’s doing. Almost since the beginning of his now 30-plus-year career, the ever-quirky American auteur has established his instantly recognizable style—symmetrical shots, stilted scripts, immaculate production design, a generous dose of whimsy—and largely stuck to it. There have been notable highs that penetrated beyond the Andersonian sphere (2001’s The Royal Tenenbaums, 2014’s The Grand Budapest Hotel), but in more recent years, the director has seemed content to roll out a steady stream of amusing diversions which mainly cater to his existing fans. Asteroid City, the last film he premiered at the Cannes Film Festival, was a modest delight, and The French Dispatch and The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar, in my view, slightly less successful, but they didn’t play all that much with this established formula. However, his latest release, The Phoenician Scheme, which marks his return to the Croisette, is slightly different.
Yes, it’s shot with Anderson’s usual exactness, features incredibly surreal dialogue, intricately designed sets and costumes, and several head-scratching, almost hallucinatory sequences, but it also happens to be—wait for it—a blood-pumping action movie. There are giant explosions, brutal plane crashes in the jungle, shoot-outs in the desert, secret assassins, fist fights, flaming arrows, hand grenades, gruesome injuries and bullets which need extracting, and a more frenetic pace. The truth is, if you’re already tired of Anderson’s various idiosyncrasies, this likely won’t be enough to win you over—it is still very much a Wes Anderson film—but for those of us who are fond of the filmmaker but have been less enthused about his last few efforts, his latest injects an often thrilling new lease of life into proceedings.
We begin in the High Balkan Plains in 1950, with Benicio del Toro’s gruff, grizzled, and nigh on indestructible Zsa-zsa Korda, a mogul who has just survived his sixth plane crash. As attempts on his life become more frequent, his mind has turned to the issue of succession. Enter Liesl (a scene-stealing Mia Threapleton, the 24-year-old daughter of screen legend Kate Winslet), a nun who also happens to be Korda’s only daughter. Given his nine sons don’t seem up to the task, he selects her as the sole heir to his estate, and sets about handing over the reins. Cue a mad dash to rendezvous with his business associates, all the while foiling further assassination plots.
Along the way, we meet everyone from Michael Cera’s Bjørn, an eccentric tutor and love interest to Liesl; to Riz Ahmed’s suave Prince Farouk; Tom Hanks and Bryan Cranston’s hoop-shooting titans; Mathieu Amalric’s fez-wearing nightclub owner; Richard Ayoade’s gun-slinging renegade; Jeffrey Wright’s frustrated seafarer; Rupert Friend’s steely government official; Scarlett Johansson’s concerned relative; and Benedict Cumberbatch as a bearded, tufty-eyebrowed, Count Olaf-esque supervillain. There are even brief interludes set in heaven, featuring Charlotte Gainsbourg as Korda’s first wife and Liesl’s mother, as well as Bill Murray as God, naturally.
With its glut of stars, abundant twists, wild action set pieces, and predictably stunning world building, The Phoenician Scheme is never less than diverting, though some of the more outlandish episodic segments—and particularly one involving a basketball match—feel too contrived and drag on a little too long. There are also far too many characters, and most are very thinly sketched, meaning they act more as walking punchlines than supporting players we can actually invest in emotionally.
That’s not true, though, of Korda and Liesl, who are far more textured and compelling, and whose slowly strengthening father-daughter bond is the glue that binds the film together. Del Toro, always a formidable presence, is magnetic here, but it is Threapleton who is the real revelation. The young actor was impressive opposite her lauded mother in I Am Ruth in 2022, and has appeared in the likes of Scoop, Dangerous Liaisons, and The Buccaneers, but this is, undeniably, her big moment on the global stage. Her Liesl is a firecracker who has no qualms about going toe to toe with her powerful father—hilariously deadpan, no-nonsense, and with all the best quips, but also human, with a real heart, conscience, and crises of faith.
She’s sure to be remembered in the pantheon of resourceful Wes Anderson heroines—Gwyneth Paltrow’s Margot Tenenbaum, Saoirse Ronan’s angelic baker Agatha in The Grand Budapest Hotel—and with her stark white nun’s garb, cross necklace, rosary beads, bright blue eyeshadow, and cherry-red lips and nails, is guaranteed to inspire costumes come next Halloween, too.
Unlike The Royal Tenenbaums and Grand Budapest, The Phoenician Scheme may not be a Wes Anderson film for the ages, but it’s a crowd-pleasing charmer nonetheless—and one which quietly tests the boundaries of the director’s very carefully constructed world. For that alone, it’s well worth seeking out.
