‘The Phoenician Scheme’: A Predictably Enjoyable Wes Anderson Outing

If you’re a fan of the charmingly immutable Wes Anderson, there’s not a whole lot in The Phoenician Scheme that will particularly shock you. It’s another funny, gorgeously made and slightly stuffy film about family, this time telling the story of a ruthless businessman forming a relationship with his estranged nun daughter through an espionage lens.

Even by Anderson’s standards, which have in recent years settled into a rather comfortable rhythm, The Phoenician Scheme does feel a little… tired. It’s the most that one of his films has felt like it’s really going through the motions, with its beautiful filmmaking, quirky sense of humour and stacked cast often feeling a bit predictable.Yet if you’re even a little bit susceptible to Anderson’s style, it’s easy to have fun with the film. The Phoenician Scheme’s drawbacks are also its strengths, depending on the mileage you get from the Wes Anderson project as a whole.

Zsa-zsa Korda (Benecio del Toro) is unaffectionately named Mr Five Per Cent by his enemies for his ability to insert himself into any deal, a fact that’s made him a target of many assassinations and attempts to sabotage his latest project: the revival of the area called Phoenicia.

He seeks out his only daughter Liesl (Mia Threapleton), a nun who has come to resent her father for his suspected role in her mother’s death. Nonetheless, the two set out across Phoenicia to cover ‘The Gap’ – the funding deficit – in the project along with bug scholar Bjørn (a hilarious Michael Cera) and met a cast of crazy characters.

Benicio del Toro and Mia Threapleton are remarkable together

It helps The Phoenician Scheme immensely that the relationship between Korda and Liesl is far and away the best stuff in the movie. Thanks to spectacular performances by Benicio del Toro and newcomer Mia Threapleton, it’s a film that’s able to accurately dig into the complicated nature of family with both humour and pathos. What does it mean to be bound by blood when there’s so little love between you?

The film does take a little long to get to this point, with its opening half an hour extremely bogged down with somewhat stuffy financial details that I found substantially less easier to follow than even Anderson’s recent efforts. Nonetheless, the film makes it through this uneasy opening and becomes much more fun after this point.

Part of that is thanks to del Toro,who is expectedly brilliant as Korda. Feeling appropriately like a Wes Anderson protagonist, the performance is deliberately exaggerated, often bizarre but nonetheless deeply charming. Even though he gives big snake oil salesman vibes, it’s hard not to fall under Korda’s spell as we spend more and more time with him.

However, The Phoenician Scheme’s greatest achievement is its deployment of Mia Threapleton to a wider audience. With her deadpan line deliveries, strong well of emotion and the ability to rock a nun outfit with green eye liner, she’s a seemingly perfect addition to Anderson’s ever-increasing roster of characters.

The Phoenician Scheme is a fun, predictable film

Speaking of, the wider cast of this film is absolutely stacked. As with every new Wes Anderson project, there are just too many names to list. However, particular highlights for me included Tom Hanks and Bryan Cranston as business partners who challenge Korda and Prince Farouk (Riz Ahmed) to a basketball shootout, Richard Ayoade as a hilarious communist revolutionary and Benedict Cumberbatch as cousin Nubar in a truly ridiculous beard and wig.

Even at his most rote, it’s worth noting that Anderson’s filmmaking style remains charming. Perhaps after a wave of AI-generated copycats I’ve found a renewed appreciation for his ultimately unreplicable style, but it’s always a joy to see how he frames comedy and bombastic setpieces unlike any other director working today.

Though The Phoenician Scheme undoubtedly errs more on the side of comfort than even his other recent efforts like Asteroid City and The French Dispatch, even a weaker entry in the Wes Anderson canon remains a sincerely fun effort with lots to appreciate. I can’t blame one of our most iconic modern filmmakers for taking one to rest on his laurels, even if I hope he gets off them for his next outing.

★★★½

The Phoenician Scheme is in theatres now.