 Starring: Luke Wilson, Owen Wilson, Neil Dowd, James Caan, Robert Musgrave
Director: Wes Anderson
Year Of Release: 1996
Plot: Anthony Adams is just out of a mental hospital where he went for a voluntary stay. He teams up with his almost childlike friend Dignan, who wants to pull off a robbery and then go on the run. However after the harebrained robbery, life on the lam isn’t as much fun as Dignan thought it would be, especially after Anthony falls in love with a maid at their hotel. But despite their problems, Dignan has one more madcap crime up his sleeves. |
Wes Anderson makes me feel bad. He made his feature film debut with Bottle Rocket (based on his 1994 short film), which also marked the movie debuts of Owen and Luke Wilson (Owen also co-wrote the movie). It’s the one Wes Anderson film I really like – and seeing as Martin Scorsese named it one of his top films of the 90s, I’m in good company.
While the movie includes a few traits that became staples of Anderson’s later films, such as quirky characters on a life journey, it doesn’t feel as idiosyncratic as the likes of The Life Aquatic or The Royal Tenenbaums, or indeed as obsessed with dysfunctional family relationships. I also think Owen Wilson’s Dignan is a brilliant character, and indeed people who still wish they could act like kids but in a grown-up world have featured in other Anderson movies, but none are as good as Dignan.
However while I also quite like Tenenbaums, the rest of Wes Anderson’s films have left me pretty cold. I didn’t particularly dislike them, but they just seemed rather pointless and I couldn’t engage with the characters. They strike me as quirky for the sake of it, while actually offering very little beyond that.
It makes me feel like I must be missing something, because I know a lot of people who absolutely adore his films, particularly his early ones. I have friends who almost live by Rushmore and place it in their list of their 10 favourite movies ever. However I keep watching it in hope of suddenly understanding why they like it so much, but it completely eludes me.
That’s why Wes Anderson makes me feel bad. As a film reviewer I like to think I can see why a film may or may not enjoyed by people, so that even if I don’t like a movie, I can see what other people might enjoy about it. For example, Transformers 2 drove me up the wall, but I can certainly understand why a lot of people liked it, as purely in terms of special effects, action and pace, you certainly get plenty of bang for your buck. Unfortunately I’m one of those annoying people who likes a story that vaguely makes sense, or at least has enough of a sense of humour to realise how stupid it is, but as Transformers 2 didn’t have that, it left me spitting.
However with Wes Anderson movies, I’m at a loss to explain the appeal. There are bits and pieces of each one I like. For example, Bill Murray is normally pretty good in the Anderson movies he’s appeared in (Rushmore, The Life Aquatic, Darjeeling Limited and Fantastic Mr. Fox), and it’s all mildly humorous, but I really don’t understand why Wes has become such a beloved auteur. I think my real problem with them is that post-Bottle Rocket, his films don’t feel real. The characters strike me as contrived. They feel like creations rather than people (I know all fictional characters are creations, but most of the time you can put your knowledge of that to one side), and that makes it difficult for me to empathise with what’s going on. It’s meant to be a heightened world, but the likes of Rushmore and Life Aquatic seem rather fake to me and as if they’re about characters that the makers think are like real people (although quirky, extreme versions of real persons) but who actually aren’t.
I suppose I’ll just have to accept that Anderson is one of those directors where you either get his films or you don’t, and that maybe most of his characters are great but I just can’t relate to them (I should also add that with Rushmore and several of this other movies, it doesn’t help that I don’t like Jason Schwartzman – I’d tell you why, but he’d probably sue).
However I really wish I could understand why other people think Wes Anderson movies are so great. To me, his films aren’t that funny, they’re not that entertaining, the stories aren’t particularly good, the characters are contrived and on pretty much every count, there are better films out there. Yet people love them. I just don’t get it.
I’d really like it if someone could explain it to me, as I’d love to comprehend what it is that makes him so beloved by so many. If you reckon you know the answer and can convert me to the Anderson cause, please leave a comment below, and maybe eventually I can like more than just Bottle Rocket.
TIM ISAAC
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