The Phoenician Scheme review

THE PHOENICIAN SCHEME: 

WES ANDERSON’S COMPLICATED YET VISUALLY FUNNY ESPIONAGE COMEDY! 

By Nico Beland

Movie Review: *** ½ out of 4

FOCUS FEATURES

Benicio Del Toro in The Phoenician Scheme

 

            Wes Anderson (Fantastic Mr. Fox, Moonrise Kingdom, The Grand Budapest Hotel) returns to tell an espionage dark-comedy in the most Wes Anderson way possible in his new film, The Phoenician Scheme. While Wes Anderson has been pretty hit-or-miss lately especially his last film, 2023’s Asteroid City which was very divisive, I’m always curious to see his work regardless of the quality. 

            I’m sure I mentioned this in other reviews, but I love Anderson’s visual style and craftsmanship with his movies, that storybook-like production design that’s also reminiscent of a stage performance, sharply written dialogue, and a zany cast of characters usually portrayed by an all-star cast. The Phoenician Scheme was no exception so I went in and gave it a watch and… I don’t know if this is a hot take, but I found this movie hilarious. 

            Sure, it’s not a perfect film and it definitely pales in comparison to most of Wes’ earlier projects, but I laughed quite a bit and was invested in the story and characters. Between this, Asteroid City, and The French Dispatch, I liked this movie a lot more. 

            The film follows industrialist and arms dealer, Zsa-Zsa Korda (Benicio Del Toro-Traffic, Sin City, Sicario 1 and 2) narrowly avoiding the latest assassination attempt on him. While recovering from his injuries, he appoints his daughter and nun, Sister Liesl (Mia Thereapleton-A Little Chaos, Firebrand, Scoop) as his heir and accompanies him on a journey to complete his biggest project yet, that being the titular Phoenician Scheme and getting the needed money through various investors. 

            The film also stars Michael Cera (Arrested Development, Superbad, Scott Pilgrim VS the World) as Bjørn Lund, Riz Ahmed (Venom, Sound of Metal, Nimona) as Prince Farouk, Tom Hanks (Forrest Gump, Cast Away, Catch Me If You Can) as Leland, Bryan Cranston (Breaking Bad, Argo, Trumbo) as Reagan, Mathieu Amalric (Munich, Quantum of Solace, The Grand Budapest Hotel) as Marseille Bob, Richard Ayoade (The IT Crowd, The Boxtrolls, The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar) as Sergio, Jeffrey Wright (The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, The Batman, American Fiction) as Marty, Scarlett Johansson (Lost in Translation, Marvel Cinematic Universe, Jojo Rabbit) as Cousin Hilda, Benedict Cumberbatch (Sherlock, The Imitation Game, Marvel Cinematic Universe) as Uncle Nubar, and Rupert Friend (A Simple Favor, Asteroid City, Companion) as Excaliber. 

            Overall, The Phoenician Scheme will likely be another divisive entry in Wes Anderson’s filmography amongst moviegoers, but I won’t lie and say I wasn’t entertained by this. I do have some issues with the film that I’ll go into in a moment, but I found it to be a very funny watch with moments that not only had me laughing but howling at times. 

            Benicio Del Toro’s character casually offering everyone hand grenades is a great running joke, Michael Cera doing a Norwegian accent is glorious and delivers some of the funniest bits of dialogue throughout the film, and my favorite being when the characters find a bomb on their plane, Del Toro’s response to it had me in stitches. The humor is very typical Wes Anderson comedy with Anderson dialogue, but it works exceptionally well and regardless of what you think of the film as a whole, I can’t imagine anyone walking out of this movie and not get at least a few chuckles out of it. 

            Benicio Del Toro gives a great lead performance here with this being his first Wes Anderson movie, he gives such dry wit while also offering a lot of depth to a character who is already pretty complicated and mysterious as this man who’s hated around the world for varying reasons. He shares great chemistry with Mia Threapleton’s Liesl and Michael Cera’s Bjørn, I could just listen to all three of them talk and banter for two hours and still leave satisfied, they are that funny. 

            I haven’t seen much of Mia Threapleton in other projects, but I thought she was also a standout as Zsa-Zsa’s daughter who’s essentially the stone-cold straight woman and audience’s surrogate in this goofy environment with colorful characters around her. I’m hoping to see her in more big projects in the near future because I think she has a lot of potential. 

            The visuals and production design are very Wes Anderson and reminiscent of a stage show or storybook pages with vibrant colors, old-fashioned cinematography, and seamless editing. It looks great on the big screen and I was simply marveling at the architecture and details of all the sets and environments in this film, definitely strong contenders for Best Production Design and Cinematography at the next Oscars. 

            While I enjoyed The Phoenician Scheme a lot and consider it the best of Anderson’s recent outings, the movie gets very unfocused the more it introduces new characters and scenarios. Most of these are still entertaining and the new characters introduced are played by extremely talented actors, but they do slow the pace down resulting in the film losing some of the energy and momentum it had in the beginning. 

            I also found the titular Phoenician Scheme hard to follow which I guess might have been the intention, but I didn’t fully understand Del Toro’s motivation for this scheme and what he tends to achieve with it. Had they focused more on fleshing this out more instead of bringing in a bunch of random characters and goofy situations, this movie might have flowed better. 

            Despite its shortcomings, I still had a good time with The Phoenician Scheme, I don’t think it’s one of Wes Anderson’s best films but I found it entertaining and interesting enough. This review is a bit complicated, but hey, so is the movie!