Culture Watch: The Phoenician Scheme

Reassuringly, you know what you're going to get with a Wes Anderson film. It's going to be visually interesting, the comedy is going to be dark and deadpan, and there will be countless cameos from famous actors making the most of the experience.

Anderson's latest - The Phoenician Scheme - delivers all of that, and it's entertaining to watch.

The script for The Phoenician Scheme is another collaboration between Anderson and Roman Coppola - if you enjoy a bit of nepo-baby spotting, you've got plenty to work with in this production - and the central narrative is one of the film's strengths.

Renegade businessman Zsa-zsa Korda (Benicio del Toro) appoints his only daughter (Mia Threapleton), a nun, as sole heir to his estate. As Korda embarks on a new enterprise, they soon become the target of scheming tycoons, foreign terrorists and determined assassins.

You could have given this script to another director and gotten a really compelling action thriller, but Anderson's interpretation strips out the emotion and the drama in order to embody his quintessential wry bemusement at the kooky world he's created.

The film is a tremendous showcase for Benicio del Toro - he brings a gruff authenticity to a caricature of a man. His counterpoint is Mia Threapleton in her first big role. Threapleton doesn't have to show much range or character development but it's a combination that works well in this context.

The wider cast that he's assembled is a testament to the appeal of a Wes Anderson production - Michael Cera, Riz Ahmed, Tom Hanks, Bryan Cranston, Mathieu Amalric, Richard Ayoade, Jeffrey Wright, Scarlett Johansson, Benedict Cumberbatch, Rupert Friend, Bill Murray, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Willem Dafoe, F. Murray Abraham, Alex Jennings, and Jason Watkins all have their roles to play.

The challenge that I have with this film - and every other Wes Anderson film that I can think of - is that you walk away from it a little unsure as to what the point of it all was.

It's clever. It's entertaining. You can appreciate the filmmaking craft being demonstrated. But the deadpan style deliberately distances you from the characters and the storytelling - you don't feel anything. Anderson doesn't give us any opportunity to empathise with these people, we aren't invited to make any emotional investment in anything that's happening on screen - we're simply observing, we're being entertained. It's Brechtian filmmaking at its most accomplished.

Bottom-line? The Phoenician Scheme is worth a watch, if you're happy to be entertained.