The Beauty and Sorrow of the Genius
---‘The Royal Tenenbaums, 2002’
“Family is not a word; it’s a sentence.”
This is a story about geniuses, written for those who wish they were not, or those who are not.
Of the castle-like houses in New York and their inhabitants who compete to be the most
extraordinary and outstanding – are they royal enough?
The self that fails to encounter the
reality and the enchanting but sad tone that cannot be soothed – are these circumstances
gloomy enough?
Owen Wilson and Wes Anderson, who have provided us with the brilliant success of
Rushmore, have again collaborated in the writing of The Royal Tenenbaums. While the
memory of John Nash, in A Beautiful Mind,2001, is still fresh, we have to ask: what on earth is
a genius meant to be anyway?
he ‘is not’.
Elijah, played by Owen Wilson, wishes he was a genius, but
He yells out on the phone that he longs to be a genius, while the precocious
Margot, played by Gwyneth Paltrow, insists that her father not to mention ever again that she
‘is’ a genius, said of course with an indifferent and backward glance.
The father, Royal, played by Gene Hackman, is given a special place in the film title, even
though ironically, he is one of the least like the other Tenenbaums. (In the film, he sadly echoes
Elijah’s words when he says, “ I want to be one of you (Tenenbaums)!” The idea struck me
when I first saw Sam in I am Sam (2002), starring Sean Penn, that indeed, there is only a thin
and subtle line that separates the genius from the idiot; they both possess an unusual
persistence and concentration that enables them to focus on both particular and the global.
Those mentally challenged put his/her all limited resources into a particularly simple and
repetitive, through investing their interest in a single object, while the genius explores and
extends his/her horizon infinitely from a single point.
It is in this way that the so-called ‘idiotic
genius’ can be regarded as embracing these two tendencies.
Hence, we have the
Tenenbaum brothers and sister who have all been so extraordinary since childhood with their
distinctively high IQ’s which however offers no compensation both for their impotence in the
context of social relations and their inadequacies when coping with their losses, frustrations
and the stagnant moments that exist in life.
Too much or too little attention from the family is not the only problem that challenges children
with extraordinarily high IQ’s – The Royal Tenenbaums focuses specifically on this aspect with
the intention of further developing its profundity.
All brothers and the sister are geniuses,
something that requires that their mother devote all her time to their education.
The father,
being one of the most ordinary people, just like other ordinary people, does not know how to
get along with these geniuses.
He is biased in his opinions, rude, always having his own way
as he shirks responsibility; he suddenly flees his family only to return without giving prior
warning.
The three brothers and sister struggle to survive on their own, as their desire to be
understood and to receive attention goes without reward.
Margot, played by Gwyneth Paltrow, has smoked for 22 years, which is to say since she was
12, but nobody ever realizes this.
How does the rest of the family react when discovering this?
Mum merely says, “You should quit smoking,” and then gets on with her business.
Margot
deliberately drops her cigarette case from her pocket to provoke the attention of her brother
Richie, played by Luke Wilson, but he only utters in response, “You dropped your cigarette
case!”
Raleigh, played by Bill Murray, not one of the geniuses, is the only one to recognize
the sorrows associated with this deeply hidden secret; after hearing an account of the tragic
nature of her recent romance, says slowly and dimly, “She smokes!”
Both Richie’s and Raleigh’s love for Margot are undeniable, but why do their expressions of
love lead to such different outcomes?
himself loving Margot.
Richie loves Margot, but to be more precise, he loves
This heartfelt affection sinks into his own deep-rooted sorrows, not
only because of their brother-sister relationship, but also because the nature of his own
personality.
(During their childhood, their father favors Richie over other children, such ‘fair
treatment’ leads Rihie to being only capable of affection for his father.)
Tennis, numbers and
literature, subjects that contrast with that of emotion, can be categorized roughly into a duality
of the linear and the non-linear.
In the former, things normally proceed forward when one
gives a push, and the worst one can possibly get is merely a stop, while in the latter, there are
absolutely no rules to follow.
Being so indulged on account of their superiority, these
geniuses cannot help, when they encounter the chaos created by the dilemmas they face,
reacting more rudely than the average person.
Such rudeness is manifest in the character of Chas, played by Ben Stiller.
After surviving a
plane crash, he resorts to wearing his Adidas clothing all the time, always ready to flee for life.
A childhood game where they pretended to be involved in a gun-battle, in which his father,
while playing on the same side, mischievously makes a sneak attack, brands an indelible mark
upon Chas’s mind. While Chas is so successful in the management of finances, his
emotional world remains totally closed and isolated.
The death of his wife and the betrayal of
his father have set the tragic tone of his life; he is only able to communicate with the outer
world through outrageous provocations and attacks. His sons and a dog, which is named
Pudding, are all that provide an emotional bridge that is capable of soothing his tenuous
connection with the world. When Pudding is killed in a car accident, and the Dalmatian
brought by Royal, meant to be for his grandson, in fact opens the gateway to Chas’s heart.
Hunchbacked and always either leaning on others or on a wall, Margot, is the most distinctive
and comprehensive character in The Royal Tenenbaums.
Precocious, sentimental and
sensible, she plays the role that reveals how a genius is both not listened to and embraced by
others, a role that transmits how deep-down she is a victim of her sorrow and the hours of
absolute solitude that she accumulates.
The others, who are bibliophiles and who, since their
childhood, have indulged themselves in books, and those who are cinema–buffs, who
themselves remain rooted in their theatres, must all have the same problem: that of how they
should distinguish what they imagine from reality itself.
A profound life demands many
actions and cannot be fulfilled by merely staying quietly in a corner.
Margot not only reads,
but also invents a fictional world; within which she writes a theatre script that is received as a
brilliant success.
However, as her output is based on the unreal and the fictional, she
therefore has many unbelievable experiences that exhibit her subjectivity with exaggeration.
She does not know how to live an ordinary life, as this life is never described in the books she
reads.
Therefore, she is left with the narcissistic undertaking of having to model herself on
the characters of heroic grandeur that do populate her books. When she finally does get
married and creates her own family, she finds she is completely at a loss as to what to do; she
does not know how to face the true nature of life, something that she deems too monotonous
to be worth living.
Nor does she know how to embrace the love and care shown to her, which
she has always longed for.
Instead she continues to indulge herself in the fantastic world of
theatre scripts and photographs, entrapping herself in her original attachment at the expense
of the affection she might feel for her family, and this is a trap from which she finds no way out.
And how about those of us who are not genius?
Each individual has his/her own merits, is
eager to get closer to the Tenenbaums despite him or herself
– that is to say, despite that
such an individual might consider he/she has already been too close for comfort. This is the
never-ceasing desire of the average individual who is attracted to the enigma of the genius.
However, in The Royal Tenenbaums, who is the one that really possesses the wisdom and
makes it possible to accommodate both the sorrows and the delights of life in a balanced,
harmonious manner? Who is rubicund who wears a lively expression on their face? Who
knows what he/she wants, how to get it, and what to do when he/she is unable to get what they
want?
The answer to this question falls into the hands of these average individual, not the
genius, not the Tenenbaums!
(My appreciation and fondness for The Royal Tenenbaums can be seen in the fact that I
continue to defend the Hollywood production despite its use of stereotyped techniques.)
Voice-overs are the most susceptible technique to lazy production practices; they can always
be called on to compensate for the failure to build up an internal dramatic tension.
However,
in The Royal Tenenbaums, the main characters are compelled to yell and roar from the inside
as if with a detached voice.
Nor would I indifferently accuse The Royal Tenenbaums of
flattering the mass audience through being perfunctory and unrealistic, by way of its grand and
happy ending.
The film does not twist the characterization of each role for the purpose of
creating a happy ending; it leaves each character carrying their own unhealed wound,
searching for a possible alternative solution for how they might meet their sorrows and
confusion.
For example, Margot, in getting down to the heart of the matter, accepts for the
first time what had always been said to be a fact – that she was adopted.
All the highs and
lows in life can be really owned only if one is willing to let go, just as Richie sets free the eagle.
Due to their in-born limits, the Tenenbaums still do not do this as well as others, yet this said,
their efforts certainly do deserve a grand and happy ending.
Genuine geniuses are rare, yet we are all like the genius to some extent. Who has never
experienced a fleeting moment’s applause and the intoxication that comes with an
acknowledgement of a talent one has?
But what follows after such a moment? Would the
self be in never-ending servitude of narcissism, or would it capitulate in another manner, that is
to a sudden low-spiritedness that results from the comparison one makes when one pits
oneself against others?
In fact, this is how it feels to a genius: he/she is a complex individual
who mingles pride with a sense of inferiority, loneliness, misanthropy and a never-ending
craving for the warmth of love.
The Royal Tenenbaums, with a not-too-sophisticated
narration and logic, and a characterization that lacks a little in both profundity and breadth,
may itself not call its subject to the attention of the actual genius.
However, this attentive and
affectionate gaze presents the most precious and honest form of gift to the world: that in which
everyone wishes he or she might be a genius.