Latest news with #Liesl
Euronews
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- Euronews
Film of the Week: 'The Phoenician Scheme' - Wes Anderson's empty shell
After three decades delighting audiences with ornamental eccentricities and highly stylised aesthetics, is Wes Anderson now simply recycling his same old tricks? Worse, has he forgotten that immersive world-building becomes the crafting of empty shells without precious emotional payoffs? On the back of 2023's Asteroid City and judging by this year's offering, it's a frustrating 'yes' on both counts. Set in 1950, The Phoenician Scheme starts off with a bang. Literally. Corrupt tycoon Anatole 'Zsa-zsa' Korda (Benicio Del Toro), one of the richest men in Europe, is attempting to survive his latest assassination attempt and escape from his sixth plane crash. It's an incredibly promising way to kick things off: explosions, blood, the surprise ejecting of a useless pilot... It's a blast. Once he's come to terms with the fact that his enemies may soon punch his ticket, the industrialist visits his estranged daughter Liesl (Mia Threapleton) and tells her that she is to be his sole heir. Despite his other nine boys. After entrusting his empire to Liesl, who is training to become a nun and whose pious reservations regarding her father's less-than-ethical practices run deep, Korda enlists her to aid him in his latest business venture. Considering the government is planning to sabotage his most audacious project yet in the fictional country of Phoenicia – the details of which he has neatly contained within shoeboxes – he plans a whistle stop tour to visit investors and donors to collect promised advances on the project. Along for the racketeering ride is Bjorn (Michael Cera, who was born to be a perfect addition to the Andersoniverse).He's a Norwegian tutor specialising in the insect world, who may not be as scholarly or as bumbling as he seems... The trio embark on a fast-paced trip that features glorified cameos from dandies Leland (Tom Hanks) and Reagan (Bryan Cranston), a fez-wearing nightclub owner named Marseilles Bob (Matthieu Amalric), American sailor Marty (Jeffrey Wright) and Cousin Hilda (Scarlett Johansson), all the way to the final-level boss - the dastardly Uncle Nubar (a bearded and bushy eyebrowed Benedict Cumberbatch). This all sounds good on paper, but despite a promising pre-credits kick-off and a pleasing pace which lulls you into thinking that dire Asteroid City was a minor mishap and that The Phoenician Scheme could very well be a return to form for Anderson, this latest flight of fancy ends up frustratingly shallow. The rapid-fire and hyper-articulated dialogue falls flat; the starry roll-call of A-listers is wasted; the insistent gag about offering each investor a souvenir hand grenade becomes bizarrely tiresome; and unlike previous offerings The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou, The Grand Budapest Hotel or Fantastic Mr. Fox, nothing registers on an emotional level. As joyful as it is to see Benicio Del Toro playing a nonchalant capitalist with redemption (ish) on the mind, he is given precious little in terms of character evolution – especially when compared to similar Anderson archetypes previously played by Bill Murray, Ralph Fiennes and George Clooney in the three aforementioned (and far superior) adventures. These films had heart and emotional payoffs to match the delightfully offbeat and twee antics. All we get here is twee. Not that Wesheads will be left wanting. They'll still have a great time marveling at production designer Adam Stockhausen's craft, with the impeccably manicured sets and Anderson's devotion to symmetry still a visual treat to behold. But not even an amusing blink-and-you'll-miss-him cameo from Bill Murray playing God during one of the Bergman-esque afterlife segments or Anderson newcomer Mia Threaplton stealing every scene she's in with her spot-on deadpan delivery ('They say you murdered my mother. I feel the need to address this') can save The Phoenician Scheme. Like Anderson's recent output (minus the messy but unfairly maligned The French Dispatch), his latest caper lacks the emotional core that ought to complement the stylish visuals. The director may tick off his treasured hallmarks – precise framing, immaculate detail, neglectful parents seeking their warped version of absolution – but it lacks soul, to the point of toppling into parody. So, while not as pleased with itself as Asteroid City was, this brisker and more linear adventure still gives off the impression that Anderson and his regular co-writing compadre Roman Coppola are simply keen to enjoy themselves more than their audience. Anderson may have become a genre onto himself, but considering The Phoenician Scheme ends up joining Asteroid City as one of his least rewarding films to date, the master of the meticulously crafted confection should do well to remind himself the following: sacrificing human depth in favour of quirk for quirk's sake will only make audience members nostalgic for his older and far less empty spectacles. Even The French Dispatch apologists. The Phoenician Scheme is out in cinemas now.
Arab Times
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- Arab Times
Anderson gets even Wes-er in his latest
LOS ANGELES, May 29, (AP): 'They say you murdered my mother,' the young would-be nun tells the shady tycoon. 'I feel the need to address this.' There's something about the deadpan delivery and the cleareyed manner that makes you sit up and take notice of Liesl, and even more of Mia Threapleton, who plays her in 'The Phoenician Scheme.' (And there's another thing, too obvious to ignore: Boy, does she ever resemble her mom, Kate Winslet.) A vivid presence despite her dry-as-dust tone, Threapleton makes a splendid Andersonian debut here as half the father daughter duo, along with Benicio Del Toro, that drives the director's latest creation. Their emerging relationship is what stands out amid the familiar Andersonian details: the picture-book aesthetic. The meticulous production design (down to those fascinating closing credits). The chapter cards. The 'who's who' of Hollywood cameos. And most of all the intricacy, elaborate, nay, labyrinthine plot. Indeed, Anderson seems to be leaning into some of these characteristics here, giving the impression of becoming even more, well, Wes Anderson than before. He will likely delight his most ardent fans but perhaps lose a few others with the plot, which becomes a bit exhausting to follow as we reach the midpoint of this tale. But what is the Phoenician scheme, anyway? It's a sweeping, ambitious, somewhat corrupt dream of one Anatole 'Zsa-zsa' Korda (Del Toro), one of the richest industrialists in Europe, to exploit a vast region of the world. We begin in 1950, with yet another assassination attempt on Korda's life - his sixth plane crash, to be exact, which occurs as he sits smoking a cigar and reading about botany. Suddenly, in a hugely entertaining pre-credits sequence, Korda's in the cockpit, ejecting his useless pilot and directing his own rescue, asking ground control whether he should crash into a corn or soybean field. The media mourns his passing - and then he turns up, one eye mangled, biting into a husk of corn. As usual, reports of his death have been … you know. Recovering at his estate, with some truly fabulous, tiled bathroom floor, Korda summons Liesl from the convent where he sent her at age 5. He wants her to be his sole heir - and avenger, should his plentiful enemies get him. His plans are contained in a series of shoeboxes. But Liesl isn't very interested in the Korda Land and Sea Phoenician Infrastructure Scheme. What she wants to know is who killed her mother. She also mentions they haven't seen each other in six years. ('I apologize,' he says.) And she wonders why none of his nine sons, young boys he keeps in a dormitory, will be heirs. But Korda wants her. They agree to a trial period. We do get the creeping feeling Liesl will never make it back to the convent - maybe it's the red lipstick, or the affinity she's developing for jewels? But we digress. We should have mentioned by now the tutor and insect expert, Bjørn. In his first Anderson film but likely not the last, Michael Cera inhabits this character with just the right mix of commitment and self-awareness. 'I could eat a horse,' he muses in a silly quasi- Norwegian accent before lunch, 'and easily a pigeon!' Now it's on the road they go, to secure investments in the scheme. We won't get into the financial niceties - we writers have wordlength limits, and you readers have patience limits. But the voyage involves - obviously! - a long line of characters only Anderson could bring to life. Among them: the Sacramento consortium, aka Tom Hanks and Bryan Cranston, two American guys who hinge their financial commitment on the outcome of a game of HORSE. Next it's to Marseille Bob (Mathieu Amalric), and then to Marty (Jeffrey Wright), leader of the Newark Syndicate (we're not talking Jersey here, but Upper Eastern Independent Phoenicia), who offers a blood transfusion to Korda because, oh yes, he was shot by terrorists at the previous meeting. (Don't worry, the guy's indestructible.) Then there's Cousin Hilda (Scarlett Johansson, continuing the cameo parade), whom Korda seeks to marry to get her participation in the investment. And then back on the plane, the group is strafed by a fighter jet. Soon, it'll be revealed that one of them is a mole. We won't tell you who, although it's hard to tell if anything is really a spoiler here - like the part when Benedict Cumberbatch appears with a very fake beard as Uncle Nubar, who may be someone's father or may have killed someone, and engages in a slapstick fight with Korda, complete with vase-smashing. We also shouldn't tell you what happens with the big ol' scheme - it was all about the journey, anyway. And about Korda and Liesl, who by the end have discovered things about each other but, even more, about themselves. As for Liesl, at the end, she's clad stylishly in black and white - but definitely not in a habit. As someone famously said about Maria in 'The Sound of Music,' 'somewhere out there is a lady who I think will never be a nun.' 'The Phoenician Scheme,' a Focus Features release, has been rated PG-13 by the Motion Picture Association 'for violent content, bloody images, some sexual material, nude images, and smoking throughout.' Running time: 101 minutes. Two and a half stars out of four.
Yahoo
4 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Wes Anderson's ‘The Phoenician Scheme' Is One of His Best
There are dozens upon dozens of memorable eccentrics, delusional antiheroes, blustery authority figures, sad sacks, screw-ups and all-too-lovable schmucks that populate the 12 feature films and handful of shorts directed by Wes Anderson. It is safe to say that there's nobody else like Anatole 'Zsa Zsa' Korda in his back catalog. (The gentleman's name alone, being a sui generis mixture of European gentry, old Hollywood callbacks and references to two different film directors, is pure chef's kiss.) An international magnate of mystery, 'a maverick in the fields of armaments and aviation,' and a celebrity business tycoon whose decisions have seismic effects on the mid-20th century's global economy, Korda has no passport and no country he calls home. He simply resides on top of the world. As played by Benicio Del Toro with equal parts Shakespearean gravitas and Looney Tunes goofiness, he is an apex predator in a bespoke pinstriped suit. Even Royal Tenenbaum would step aside to let this titan of industry pass. Such headline-making success breeds envy and enemies, of course, which is why a cabal of Korda's rivals keep sabotaging his planes; when we meet Zsa Zsa, he's just survived the umpteenth in-flight bombing and crash landing. One can only walk away from so many assassination attempts before their luck runs out. Which is why Korda is keen to secure his legacy. His master plan is twofold: First, he must convince his only daughter, Liesl (Mia Threapleton), to become the heir to his fortune; Korda doesn't believe his nine young sons, who run the gamut from mischief-makers to nincompoops, are up to the task. The only caveat is that she must avenge his death should he perish. There are several problems with this initial stage, however, given that Liesl has been estranged from her father for years and believes he murdered her mother. Oh, and also, she's a novitiate who wants nothing more than a convent to call her own. More from Rolling Stone Mia Threapleton Idolized Wes Anderson. Then She Became the Breakout Star of His New Movie Tom Hanks to Star in 'This World of Tomorrow' Play, Which He Wrote, This Fall 'Highest 2 Lowest' Isn't Spike Lee's Best or Worst - Just a Chance to Watch Denzel Go HAM The second part centers a vast infrastructure project involving a tunnel, a waterway and a 'hydroelectric embankment.' Never mind the who, what, how, or why of it — dubbed 'the Phoenician Scheme' and laid out via a series of intricate shoeboxes that speak more to the aesthetic favored by the famously fastidious filmmaker than anything else, this is Korda's bid for immortality. Except the enigmatic Anti-Zsa Zsa committee that's been bankrolling all those plane bombs have also just tanked the market in terms of the materials needed to build all of this. So Korda must trot the globe in order to ensure that his various investors can 'cover the gap' vis-à-vis the funding. He's decided to drag Liesl and Bjorn (Michael Cera), a tutor he's hired from Oslo, along for company. Maybe this man who's used to getting what he wants can convince the nun to get with the program. If Korda happens to bond with his offspring, that's a bonus. Both a continuation of Anderson's highly imitable, endlessly meme-able strain of filmmaking — has any other name-above-the-title auteur of the last 30 years been so associated with one consistent, defining signature style? Please submit your answers via old-timey telegraphs — and an expansion of his thematic preoccupations, The Phoenician Scheme finds our man Wes in a somewhat pensive mood. Father figures have always loomed large in his work, dating back to his debut movie Bottle Rocket (1996), and along with Del Toro and cowriter Roman Coppola (no stranger to patriarchs with large shadows), he's concocted one doozy of a screen dad. Korda thinks nothing of sequestering his nine sons in a mansion of their own across the street, so they'll stay out of his hair. When several jump at the site of a praying mantis that Bjorn produces during a rare group lunch at his place, Korda barks, 'Are we mice, or men?!' Liesl, for her part, is not happy to be summoned out of the blue after six years of no contact. She's also aghast when she finds out he's been spying on her from afar. 'It's not called spying when you're the parent,' Zsa Zsa replies. 'It's called nurturing.' But at the press conference at Cannes, where the film premiered last week, Anderson made a point of mentioning that he, Coppola and Del Toro are all raising daughters, and how that aspect factored into the schematics of his latest work. The director doesn't need to fret about his legacy, but there's an inherent worry about the responsibilities of fatherhood embedded into the DNA of this espionage-thriller-meets-ensemble-comedy. It's easy to be anxious about being not just a dad but a bad dad, and while there's zero sense that Anderson is exorcising personal demons — that's not his style — the underlying feeling that Korda has come around entertaining the idea of some relationship with his spiritually questing firstborn too late in life is present even in the broader, more outré moments. Not that The Phoenician Scheme isn't playful, or filled with the surface pleasures so many of us have come to cherish about Anderson's specific visual template. Longtime production designer Adam Stockhausen outdoes himself here, creating vivid worlds that run the gamut from exotic, Casablanca-style nightspots to underground-tunnel meeting spaces to treacherous jungle landscapes. Working with Bruno Delbonnel (Amelie, Across the Universe, Inside Llewyn Davis) for the first time, Anderson takes advantage of the French cinematographer's facility with color, lighting, and an almost faded-Kodachrome look to this 1950s period piece. The cast, per usual, is vast and to die for: Jeffrey Wright delivers rat-a-tat dialogue as a sea captain living a true life aquatic; Benedict Cumberbatch rocks a bitchin' Rasputin beard as Korda's brother; Tom Hanks and Bryan Cranston do a daffy double act as American businessmen who challenge Zsa Zsa and a prince played by Riz Ahmed to a trial by basketball; Scarlett Johansson shows up briefly as a cousin who runs a utopian commune; the always great Richard Aayode is a revolutionary who commits the sin of shooting up Mathieu Amalric's chic dance club. A few straight-outta-Andrei Rublev vignettes in black and white suggest an afterlife in which God is played, naturally, by Bill Murray. Rather, it's that these set pieces and the supporting cast all serve to further buffer, goose and/or cast a different angle on the central relationship between Zsa Zsa and Liesl. And though most of The Phoenician Scheme is technically a three-hander, with Cera's nebbishy academic adding to the screwball vibe (on a scale of one to Swedish Chef from The Muppets, his Oslo accent is roughly a six), this is really a two-person joint. Thank god Anderson cast the leads he did. As with a lot of great actors who can switch their pitches up at will, you probably take Benicio Del Toro for granted. The way he lends his alpha male industrialist both a sense of authority, a hint of a swindler's con artistry, and a slight befuddlement mixed with buried pride over how Liesl stands up to him, all while keeping perfect comic time, is a prime example of why he's forever courting generational GOAT status. And Threapleton, a relative newcomer, is a major find. It isn't just that she can hold her own against her formidable scene partner; it's that she works perfectly in tandem with him while distinguishing Liesl via a less-is-more performance. Told that her life will change irrevocably when she inherits her father's fortune, the nun gives a barely discernible shrug. It's like a silent-comedy routine in miniature. The duo aren't the only reason Scheme works as well as it does, but they do help lay an emotional foundation that gives Anderson room to build upon. The best of his movies — Rushmore, The Royal Tenenbaums, Fantastic Mr. Fox, The Grand Budapest Hotel — find a way to gel a bigger-picture pathos with the idiosyncrasies, stylistic tics, tricks, and storytelling modes that has made him a beloved figure among both film nerds and discerning viewers desperate for watching big stars have fun. We'd rank this one right next to those. It ends on the closest thing to a simple life that this larger-than-life figure can imagine, taking its sweet time so you can savor the sublime nature of the moment that much more. You leave impressed that Anderson can still manage to do what his does best without succumbing to self-parody here. The blueprint may be familiar. But it's still a pretty foolproof plan. Best of Rolling Stone The 50 Best 'Saturday Night Live' Characters of All Time Denzel Washington's Movies Ranked, From Worst to Best 70 Greatest Comedies of the 21st Century
Mint
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- Mint
Movie Review: Wes Andersons ‘Phoenician Scheme' is as Wes Anderson as a Wes Anderson film can be
'They say you murdered my mother,' the young would-be nun tells the shady tycoon. 'I feel the need to address this.' There's something about the deadpan delivery and the clear-eyed manner that makes you sit up and take notice of Liesl, and even more of Mia Threapleton, who plays her in 'The Phoenician Scheme.' (And there's another thing, too obvious to ignore: Boy, does she ever resemble her mom, Kate Winslet.) A vivid presence despite her dry-as-dust tone, Threapleton makes a splendid Andersonian debut here as half the father-daughter duo, along with Benicio Del Toro, that drives the director's latest creation. Their emerging relationship is what stands out amid the familiar Andersonian details: the picture-book aesthetic. The meticulous production design (down to those fascinating closing credits). The chapter cards. The 'who's who' of Hollywood cameos. And most of all the intricate — nay, elaborate; nay, labyrinthine — plot. Indeed, Anderson seems to be leaning into some of these characteristics here, giving the impression of becoming even more, well, Wes Anderson than before. He will likely delight his most ardent fans but perhaps lose a few others with the plot, which becomes a bit exhausting to follow as we reach the midpoint of this tale. But what is the Phoenician scheme, anyway? It's a sweeping, ambitious, somewhat corrupt dream of one Anatole 'Zsa-zsa' Korda (Del Toro), one of the richest industrialists in Europe, to exploit a vast region of the world. We begin in 1950, with yet another assassination attempt on Korda's life — his sixth plane crash, to be exact, which occurs as he sits smoking a cigar and reading about botany. Suddenly, in a hugely entertaining pre-credits sequence, Korda's in the cockpit, ejecting his useless pilot and directing his own rescue, asking ground control whether he should crash into a corn or soybean field. The media mourns his passing — and then he turns up, one eye mangled, biting into a husk of corn. As usual, reports of his death have been … you know. Recovering at his estate, with some truly fabulous, tiled bathroom floors, Korda summons Liesl from the convent where he sent her at age 5. He wants her to be his sole heir — and avenger, should his plentiful enemies get him. His plans are contained in a series of shoeboxes. But Liesl isn't very interested in the Korda Land and Sea Phoenician Infrastructure Scheme. What she wants to know is who killed her mother. She also mentions they haven't seen each other in six years. ('I apologize,' he says.) And she wonders why none of his nine sons, young boys he keeps in a dormitory, will be heirs. But Korda wants her. They agree to a trial period. We do get the creeping feeling Liesl will never make it back to the convent — maybe it's the red lipstick, or the affinity she's developing for jewels? But we digress. We should have mentioned by now the tutor and insect expert, Bjørn. In his first Anderson film but likely not the last, Michael Cera inhabits this character with just the right mix of commitment and self-awareness. 'I could eat a horse,' he muses in a silly quasi-Norwegian accent before lunch, 'and easily a pigeon!' Now it's on the road they go, to secure investments in the scheme. We won't get into the financial niceties — we writers have word-length limits, and you readers have patience limits. But the voyage involves — obviously! — a long line of characters only Anderson could bring to life. Among them: the Sacramento consortium, aka Tom Hanks and Bryan Cranston, two American guys who hinge their financial commitment on the outcome of a game of HORSE. Next it's to Marseille Bob (Mathieu Amalric), and then to Marty (Jeffrey Wright), leader of the Newark Syndicate (we're not talking Jersey here, but Upper Eastern Independent Phoenicia), who offers a blood transfusion to Korda because, oh yes, he was shot by terrorists at the previous meeting. (Don't worry, the guy's indestructible.) Then there's Cousin Hilda (Scarlett Johansson, continuing the cameo parade), whom Korda seeks to marry to get her participation in the investment. And then back on the plane, the group is strafed by a fighter jet. Soon, it'll be revealed that one of them is a mole. We won't tell you who, although it's hard to tell if anything is really a spoiler here — like the part when Benedict Cumberbatch appears with a very fake beard as Uncle Nubar, who may be someone's father or may have killed someone, and engages in a slapstick fight with Korda, complete with vase-smashing. We also shouldn't tell you what happens with the big ol' scheme — it was all about the journey, anyway. And about Korda and Liesl, who by the end have discovered things about each other but, even more, about themselves. As for Liesl, at the end, she's clad stylishly in black and white — but definitely not in a habit. As someone famously said about Maria in 'The Sound of Music,' 'somewhere out there is a lady who I think will never be a nun.' 'The Phoenician Scheme,' a Focus Features release, has been rated PG-13 by the Motion Picture Association 'for violent content, bloody images, some sexual material, nude images, and smoking throughout.' Running time: 101 minutes. Two and a half stars out of four.
4 days ago
- Entertainment
Movie Review: Wes Anderson's ‘Phoenician Scheme' is as Wes Anderson as a Wes Anderson film can be
'They say you murdered my mother,' the young would-be nun tells the shady tycoon. 'I feel the need to address this.' There's something about the deadpan delivery and the clear-eyed manner that makes you sit up and take notice of Liesl, and even more of Mia Threapleton, who plays her in 'The Phoenician Scheme.' (And there's another thing, too obvious to ignore: Boy, does she ever resemble her mom, Kate Winslet.) A vivid presence despite her dry-as-dust tone, Threapleton makes a splendid Andersonian debut here as half the father-daughter duo, along with Benicio Del Toro, that drives the director's latest creation. Their emerging relationship is what stands out amid the familiar Andersonian details: the picture-book aesthetic. The meticulous production design (down to those fascinating closing credits). The chapter cards. The 'who's who' of Hollywood cameos. And most of all the intricate — nay, elaborate; nay, labyrinthine — plot. Indeed, Anderson seems to be leaning into some of these characteristics here, giving the impression of becoming even more, well, Wes Anderson than before. He will likely delight his most ardent fans but perhaps lose a few others with the plot, which becomes a bit exhausting to follow as we reach the midpoint of this tale. But what is the Phoenician scheme, anyway? It's a sweeping, ambitious, somewhat corrupt dream of one Anatole 'Zsa-zsa' Korda (Del Toro), one of the richest industrialists in Europe, to exploit a vast region of the world. We begin in 1950, with yet another assassination attempt on Korda's life — his sixth plane crash, to be exact, which occurs as he sits smoking a cigar and reading about botany. Suddenly, in a hugely entertaining pre-credits sequence, Korda's in the cockpit, ejecting his useless pilot and directing his own rescue, asking ground control whether he should crash into a corn or soybean field. The media mourns his passing — and then he turns up, one eye mangled, biting into a husk of corn. As usual, reports of his death have been … you know. Recovering at his estate, with some truly fabulous, tiled bathroom floors, Korda summons Liesl from the convent where he sent her at age 5. He wants her to be his sole heir — and avenger, should his plentiful enemies get him. His plans are contained in a series of shoeboxes. But Liesl isn't very interested in the Korda Land and Sea Phoenician Infrastructure Scheme. What she wants to know is who killed her mother. She also mentions they haven't seen each other in six years. ('I apologize,' he says.) And she wonders why none of his nine sons, young boys he keeps in a dormitory, will be heirs. But Korda wants her. They agree to a trial period. We do get the creeping feeling Liesl will never make it back to the convent — maybe it's the red lipstick, or the affinity she's developing for jewels? But we digress. We should have mentioned by now the tutor and insect expert, Bjørn. In his first Anderson film but likely not the last, Michael Cera inhabits this character with just the right mix of commitment and self-awareness. 'I could eat a horse,' he muses in a silly quasi-Norwegian accent before lunch, 'and easily a pigeon!' Now it's on the road they go, to secure investments in the scheme. We won't get into the financial niceties — we writers have word-length limits, and you readers have patience limits. But the voyage involves — obviously! — a long line of characters only Anderson could bring to life. Among them: the Sacramento consortium, aka Tom Hanks and Bryan Cranston, two American guys who hinge their financial commitment on the outcome of a game of HORSE. Next it's to Marseille Bob (Mathieu Amalric), and then to Marty (Jeffrey Wright), leader of the Newark Syndicate (we're not talking Jersey here, but Upper Eastern Independent Phoenicia), who offers a blood transfusion to Korda because, oh yes, he was shot by terrorists at the previous meeting. (Don't worry, the guy's indestructible.) Then there's Cousin Hilda (Scarlett Johansson, continuing the cameo parade), whom Korda seeks to marry to get her participation in the investment. And then back on the plane, the group is strafed by a fighter jet. Soon, it'll be revealed that one of them is a mole. We won't tell you who, although it's hard to tell if anything is really a spoiler here — like the part when Benedict Cumberbatch appears with a very fake beard as Uncle Nubar, who may be someone's father or may have killed someone, and engages in a slapstick fight with Korda, complete with vase-smashing. We also shouldn't tell you what happens with the big ol' scheme — it was all about the journey, anyway. And about Korda and Liesl, who by the end have discovered things about each other but, even more, about themselves. As for Liesl, at the end, she's clad stylishly in black and white — but definitely not in a habit. As someone famously said about Maria in 'The Sound of Music,' 'somewhere out there is a lady who I think will never be a nun.' 'The Phoenician Scheme,' a Focus Features release, has been rated PG-13 by the Motion Picture Association 'for violent content, bloody images, some sexual material, nude images, and smoking throughout.' Running time: 101 minutes. Two and a half stars out of four.
