The Phoenician Scheme (15)
Cast: Benicio Del Toro, Michael Cera, Benedict Cumberbatch, Jeffrey Wright, Mia Threapleton, Tom Hanks, Bryan Cranston, Scarlett JohanssonGenre: Comedy
Author(s): Wes Anderson
Director: Wes Anderson
Release Date: 23/05/2025 (selected cinemas)
Running Time: 101mins
Country: US/Ger
Year: 2025
Zsa-zsa Korda is a titan of commerce who oversees the "mediation of clandestine trade agreements". Jealous rivals wish him outrageous misfortune. Cue various assassination attempts, including a targeted explosion aboard Zsa-zsa's private plane, which forces the magnate to crash-land in a cornfield. Blessed with 10 children from three wives, Zsa-zsa pins his hopes on his only daughter, Liesl, a novice nun poised to take her vows. Liesl reluctantly joins her father on a globe-trotting expedition.
LondonNet Film Review
The Phoenician Scheme (15) Film Review from LondonNet
There is only one Wes Anderson. It’s a blessing to witness the boundless imagination of an auteur whose films are immediately distinguishable by their artful aesthetic and quirky sense of humour, and a curse when a rare talent takes a big creative swing and misses, even by a hair’s breadth. Fifties-set comedy thriller The Phoenician Scheme plants one sensible shoe in each camp, marrying impeccable production design and deliciously droll humour to a perplexing globe-trotting caper that inflicts “unholy mischief” on a dysfunctional father-daughter relationship…
Anderson’s screenplay bears all the hallmarks, from the running joke about a young boy on the loose with a crossbow (“Be careful of your eyes, he’s a very good shot!”) to the dazzling array of characters who inhabit this chocolate box world filled with plentiful hard centres. Ethereal black and white interludes in the afterlife, after each failed assassination attempt on the lead character, herald Bill Murray as a generously coiffed Almighty. A ridiculously stacked ensemble cast boasts moments to shine for F Murray Abraham, Mathieu Amalric, Richard Ayoade, Willem Dafoe and Charlotte Gainsbourg. Fans of Anderson’s previous work will be in their element. I felt emotionally removed for extended periods.
Zsa-zsa Korda (Benicio del Toro) is a titan of commerce who oversees the “mediation of clandestine trade agreements”. Jealous rivals wish him outrageous misfortune. Cue various assassination attempts, including a targeted explosion aboard Zsa-zsa’s private plane, which forces the magnate to assume command from his pilot (Stephen Park) and crash-land in a cornfield. Succession planning is vital to implement the Phoenician Scheme – his ambitious three-part infrastructure vision comprising a hydroelectric dam, mountainside locomotive tunnel and inland waterway.
He hopes funding can be divided between wealthy investors and family including Prince Farouk (Riz Ahmed), basketball-loving tycoons Leland (Tom Hanks) and Reagan (Bryan Cranston), shipping magnate Marty (Jeffrey Wright), second cousin Hilda (Scarlett Johansson) and half-brother Nubar (Benedict Cumberbatch). Blessed with 10 children from three wives, Zsa-zsa pins his hopes on his only daughter, Liesl (Mia Threapleton), a novice nun poised to take her vows. Liesl reluctantly joins her father on a globe-trotting expedition to woo investors, accompanied by Norwegian insect specialist Bjorn Lund (Michael Cera), who is hired as a tutor for Liesl’s siblings.
The Phoenician Scheme is a meandering meditation on mortality and the tiny legacies we leave behind. Anderson’s visually stunning curiosity plays most gags with a straight face but a centrepiece fight to the death can’t resist bursts of exaggerated physical comedy. Del Toro and Threapleton are a wonderfully deadpan double-act, the latter scolding her old man for sacrificing human connections at the altar of material wonder. Anderson’s picture makes those same trade-offs.
– Kim Hu
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