THE PHOENICIAN SCHEME, US, 2025. Starring Benicio del Toro, Mia Threapleton, Michael Cera, Riz Ahmed, Tom Hanks, Bryan Cranston, Mathieu Amalric, Richard Ayoade, Jeffrey Wright, Scarlett Johansson, Benedict Cumberbatch, Rupert Friend, Hope Davis, Bill Murray, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Willem Dafoe, F Murray Abraham, Stephen Park, Alex Jennings, Donald Sumpter, Scott Shepherd. Directed by Wes Anderson. 101 minutes. Rated M (Injury detail).
A significant part of the review for The Phoenician Scheme is to look at the huge credits list – many of the cast having appeared in other Wes Anderson films. And, of course, there is always expectations from writer-director Anderson who has been writing and directing films, including two animation films, for more than a quarter of a century. His style and his exploration of themes is, to say the least, highly distinctive.
And The Phoenician Scheme is idiosyncratically distinctive. It is stylised in the visuals, the traditional box screen frame, the framing of action, the references to paintings and the staging looking like 20th century paintings. Then there are the performances, also stylised, often life theatre performances, eccentric and clipped delivery of lines, postures and posing. And, for those audiences ready to surrender to Anderson, these visuals and the performances are readily engaging.
There is a plot. The setting is 1950, an entrepreneurial businessman from Hungary, Korda, played perfectly – seriously and ironically – by Benicio del Toro. He has survived several plane crashes, assassins out to get him and sabotage his plan for development, rails and tunnels in Phoenicia. We are presented with a chart indicating his plans as well as the contacts he must make to improve a shortfall in income project. They serve as chapters for the film.
Korda has many children, his own and adopted, hoping for an Einstein for the future. But his only daughter, Liesl, a novice nun, played by Threapleton, is seconded, initially unwillingly and firmly committed to her vocation, to be his heir. [Threapleton is following in the footsteps of her mother, Kate Winslet, a very interesting role.] And, there is Korda’s new assistant, an expert on insects, played with accent by Michael Cera.
Interspersed throughout it is round table conference of elders who are monitoring Korda’s behaviour judging him and his morality.
The encounters with the various characters for financial help are highly entertaining, eccentric and satirically humorous in their way, incorporating the various stars listed above until a culmination in the fearsome presence of Benedict Cumberbatch, Korda’s brother.
Then there are Korda’s memories and dreams, flashbacks in black-and-white, some of his near death, or momentary post-death, experiences, some ecclesiastical in an Orthodox style, others with biblical overtones, again with a number of stars – and a cameo by Bill Murray, who has been working with Anderson for a long time, culminating in his presence as God.
Anderson has a wry and offbeat sense of humour, so often the unexpected, some realism and then some surrealism, farcical moments, deadly serious moments, tantalising the audience, a treat for those who are willing to be tantalised.
Universal
Released 29 May