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The play’s the thing: The audience is treated to brief glimpses of the plays Margot stages, but what really stands out for me is the opening sequence where each of the main characters is glimpsed face on for a few seconds (as if they are looking into a mirror) with credits that read “Gene Hackman as Royal Tenenbaum” etc. Although there is nothing cinematically new about this, in the context of the film I always feel it is akin to the list of character descriptions that precedes Shakespeare’s plays (Nicolas Winding Refn’s “Pusher” Trilogy inspires similar thoughts in me with its equivalent character introductions). In identifying the various levels of the Tenenbaum house as the film opens, the Narrator’s words coupled with onscreen descriptions also conspire to create the feeling of the locales of a play unfolding before the audience.

Music: Anderson’s soundtracks are always remarkably chosen, both for their thematic conceits (foreign-language David Bowie covers in The Life Aquatic, music from Satyajit Ray films in The Darjeeling Limited) and their generic breadth, but I want to briefly mention what almost passes for a two minute music video here, as a private investigator’s look into Margot Tenenbaum’s life, as presented to her husband, takes the form of a visual case file via a series of liaisons and infidelities involving both genders and several ethnicities. That this droll sequence is scored to The Ramones’ raucous classic “Judy is a Punk” adds to the incongruity (as does Gwyneth Paltrow’s gloriously bored and apathetic visage which she wears here and for nearly the entire film, and which makes the case that she’s a lot more interesting as an actress when she is denied her smile.) Elsewhere, a symphonic take on a Beatles classic performed by a group helmed by the leader of Devo opens the film and a pair of Rolling Stones songs underscore a key scene of romantic longing and regret.

Architecture: The house may be the unsung cast member so it’s nice that the Criterion DVD includes a foldout illustrated floor design to accompany the viewing. What I find most notable about the house used is not only how its size illustrates how easy it is for the Tenenbaums to keep each other at arms’ length (floor’s length as it were) but how packed every corner of it is with knickknacks, bric a brac, belongings, and, as the film progresses, people. Even at the height of the family’s estrangement, the film’s production designers have crafted a residence that hums and crackles with life, reminders of the past and their psychic baggage be damned, there is love here and the possibility for love as well.

Hobbies, passions, etc.: There are the paintings Richie does (all of Margot), Chas’ experimentation with Dalmatian mice (descendants of whom seem to be underfoot of the Tenenbaums for most of the film’s running time), Margot’s brief marriage to a recording artist (and contributions to one of his albums), Etheline’s hosting of bridge tournaments, Eli’s experimentation with mescaline, Richie’s keeping of falcons on the rooftop. While there may be a tendency that these traits slide into quirks, more often than not, they simply seem to be extensions of the character’s personalities, a way for them to express themselves outside of normal channels, or in contrast to their presumed or assumed role within the family dynamics.

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