PHOENICIAN SCHEME, THE
(director/writer: Wes Anderson; screenwriter: story by Anderson and Roman Coppola; cinematographer: Bruno Delbonnel; editor: Barney Pilling; music: Alexandre Desplat; cast: Benecio Del Toro (Zsa-zsa Korda), F. Murray Abraham (Prophet), Truman Hanks (administrative secretary), Steve Park (The Pilot), Riz Ahmed (Prince Farouk), Kit Rakusen (David), Jonathan Wirtz (David #2), Edward Hyland (Jasper), Ogden Dawson (Michael), Milo James (Phillip), Hector Bateman-Harden (Jamie), Benjamin Lake (Harry), Gunes Taylor (Steven), Gabriel Ryan (Samuel), Momo Ramadan (Thomas), Benedict Cumberbatch (Nubar), Michael Cera (Bjorn), Mia Threapleton (Sister Liesl), Tom Hanks (Leland), Bryan Cranston (Reagan), Jeffrey Wright (Marty), Scarlett Johansson (Cousin Hilda), Mathieu Amalric (Marseille Bob), Richard Ayoade (Sergio), Rupert Friend (excaliber), Hope Davis (Mother Superior), Alex Jennings (Broadcloth), Charlotte Gainsbourg (1st wife), Willem Dafoe (Knave), Beatrice Campbell (young Liesl), Bill Murray (God), Freya Feyrouz (Angel); Runtime: 141; MPAA Rating: PG-13; producers: Wes Anderson, Jeremy Dawson, John Peet, Steven Rales; Focus Features; 2025-USA/Germany)
“A bit too Phoenician for my taste.”
Reviewed by Dennis Schwartz
Wes Anderson (“Asteroid City”/”The Rat Catcher”) directs and writes this enjoyable but impenetrable stylish screwball comedy based on a story he wrote with Roman Coppola. It co-stars Kate Winslet’s daughter Mia Threapleton, in her first major role, and features a large ensemble cast with top-line movie stars such as Tom Hanks and Scarlett Johansson in brief cameos.
The story is set in 1950 and is about the married and divorced three times with eleven children (ten boys), unscrupulous, filthy rich, European oligarch Zsa-Zsa Korda (Benecio Del Toro). It tells about his scheme to operate the economy of a fictional Middle Eastern nation called Phoenicia, and through manipulation of the farm markets and using slave labor to cause a famine there so he can get what he wants.
His rottenness and bloody greed has him make sketchy business deals with relatives and associates. They include the investor Marty (Jeffrey Wright), his Cousin Hilda (Scarlett Johansson), the nightclub owner Marseille Bob (Mathieu Amalric) and his villainous bearded half-brother, Uncle Nubar (Benedict Cumberbatch), who might have killed his wife.
Zsa-Zsa’s estranged daughter, the novitiate Sister Liesl (Mia Threapleton), is set to take over the business even if she doesn’t want to, when dad believes it’s time for him to retire after escaping a plane crash. Her Norwegian tutor Bjorn (Michael Cera), who sports a terrible Nordic accent, has a crush on her, as he accompanies her to Phoenicia on a business junket.
The energetic, vengeful US attorney General Mr. Excaliber (Rupert Friend) tears into the way the scheme works setting a fixed-price on profits, so Zsa-Zsa must get his schemer partners to accept less profit for the scheme still to work. When Zsa-Zsa escapes from a government planned plane attack, he’s consoled by speaking to God (Bill Murray).
It never reaches the greatness of Anderson’s other great films, as the visuals are very good but flatter than usual, the plot is too convoluted to be easily followed, and the story is too mannered. In the end, it’s a bit too Phoenician for my taste. But it’s an Anderson film that meets his qualifications for weirdness, uniqueness and star performances.
It played at the Cannes Film Festival.
REVIEWED ON 6/1/2025 GRADE: B
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