Wes Anderson's The Phoenician Scheme review: A bland imitation of The Grand Budapest Hotel

Australia Broadcast Center

29-05-2025

The Phoenician Scheme is textbook Wes Anderson — and that's exactly its problem.
What: A black comedy centred on an oligarch who reconnects with his daughter and hatches a last-ditch scheme to save his fortune.
Directed by: Wes Anderson
Starring: Benicio del Toro, Mia Threapleton, Michael Cera, Scarlett Johansson, Bill Murray, Benedict Cumberbatch, Willem Dafoe, Richard Ayoade, Tom Hanks, Riz Ahmed
Released: In cinemas now
Likely to make you feel: Like speaking to everyone in deadpan monotony
The acclaimed director has earned himself a cult following for visually striking films that create an immersive world complemented by quirky, oddball characters.
But after three decades in Hollywood, he's still recycling the same tricks.
While The Phoenician Scheme has the ingredients of an Anderson classic, it's missing the heart, nuance and grounding that made his early films so special.
Set in 1950, The Phoenician Scheme follows wealthy anti-hero Zsa-zsa Korda (Benicio del Toro). His ruthless business ventures have made him the enemy of just about everyone, and he's hounded by non-stop assassination attempts.
In the face of his likely imminent murder, Zsa-zsa decides to prepare his estranged daughter Liesl (Mia Threapleton) to be his successor. As a nun, Liesl is the absolute antithesis to her swindler of a father, but they soon rub off on each other.
Zsa-zsa is also in the final stages of a large-scale infrastructure project to find further fortune within the riches of Modern Greater Independent Phoenicia.
With personal insect tutor Bjorn (Michael Cera) in tow, Zsa-zsa and Liesl embark on an intercontinental quest to close The Gap — an ever-expanding financial shortfall — complete his life's work and save the family estate.
As always, the film has stunning sets, costumes and cinematography, trademark quips and an impressive soundtrack. But with a convoluted plot and seemingly endless characters — all played by A-listers — it can be difficult to follow exactly what's going on and how everyone fits together.
At times, The Phoenician Scheme feels more like an SNL skit parodying Wes Anderson than a fully fledged feature.
While his earlier films had some delightfully deadpan characters, there were a range of archetypes on show, with boisterous, zany and even grounded personalities balancing out the blunt.
Instead, almost every character in Phoenician Scheme gives a comically stony performance, and with no-one to bounce off, much of the original humour is lost.
It feels like actors are impersonating Wes Anderson characters, rather than creating anything original of their own.
Del Toro plays another wealthy, crass patriarch who has a strained relationship with his children, along the lines of Gene Hackman in 2001's The Royal Tenenbaums, Bill Murray in 2004's The Life Aquatic or 2012's Moonrise Kingdom, and George Clooney in 2009's Fantastic Mr Fox.
Del Toro portrays this part well enough, but it's hard not to compare him to the actors who have filled the same shoes in previous films, and he doesn't quite have the warmth and humour that actors like Murray naturally bring to the role.
Likewise, nepo baby Threapleton — who has participated in endless interviews about being Kate Winslet's daughter, and who speaks in an uncannily similar voice to her mother — does an impression of Anderson's previous manic pixie dream girls.
While she shoots for Cate Blanchett in Tenenbaums or Kara Hayward as the teenager in Moonrise Kingdom, her monotonous delivery falls flat. Although this is of course Anderson's intention with the character, it leads to inevitable comparisons with similar staples of pop culture — Aubrey Plaza's April Ludgate or even cartoons like Daria — who successfully bring earnestness and depth to a cold role.
Scarlett Johanssen cameos as del Toro's love interest in the same style, making the two women near-impossible to differentiate and connect with.
With The Phoenician Scheme's brisk jumps between a vast array of whimsical locations, enemies hot on their tail, it feels like an attempt to emulate the success of The Grand Budapest Hotel.
But there was a tenderness Ralph Fiennes brought to the lead role of that film, also found in the relationship between a lobby boy and his mentor, that's missing here.
And for all Phoenician Scheme's hints at father-daughter tension, it doesn't feel like this relationship is taken seriously as a source of conflict, character or growth.
The endless celebrity cameos — from Benedict Cumberbatch in a ludicrous beard to Tom Hanks and Bryan Cranston playing basketball — feel more like PR stunts than developed characters, their main addition to the story simply being, "Hey look, it's a Hollywood star!"
But The Phoenician Scheme does still fill the cup of those craving what Anderson does best: visuals.
This is another perfectly symmetrical feast for the eyes, complete with hieroglyphics, rainforests dotted with quicksand and artfully arranged interiors.
Michael Cera also shines as the gentle and good-natured Bjorn, whom he convincingly brings to life through his trademark humour and charm.
Overall, The Phoenician Scheme is a wholly acceptable addition to Anderson's catalogue, and is sure to delight diehard fans hungry for more Wes. But it's hard not to get nostalgic for his older films, which, for all their idiosyncrasies, felt human.
The Phoenician Scheme is in cinemas now.