‘The Phoenician Scheme’ review: Wes Anderson’s art of the deal

With a gory explosion, a plane crash, and a dramatic close-up of tycoon Zsa-zsa Korda (Benicio del Toro), whose battered face is so lumpy and purple it looks like eggplant Parmesan, Wes Anderson’s “The Phoenician Scheme” gets off to a tremendous start. Zsa-zsa is a fighter, a survivor, and an unstoppable businessman; nothing compares to his unrelenting energy except Alexandre Desplat’s exhilarating ticking time bomb of a score.

Along with being a one-man plague, he has left behind a string of unexplained dead ex-wives, slavery, and famine. “I have never personally killed anyone,” Zsa-zsa maintains with a lackluster conviction. Anderson convinces us to support this robber-baron despite this. The movie’s mark is us. Being so skillfully duped is enjoyable.

The title of the movie refers to Zsa-zsa’s ambitious plan to construct a dam, tunnel, and canal in what is known as Modern Greater Independent Phoenicia, which roughly corresponds to Saudi Arabia. This is presumably done in remembrance of the ancient empire that placed a higher priority on trade than on religion and war. As far as philosophy goes, the Phoenicians were more like Amazon.com than Rome. The required parties—a prince (Riz Ahmed), two American businessmen (Tom Hanks and Bryan Cranston), a nightclub tycoon (Mathieu Amalric), a sailor (Jeffrey Wright), and his cousin-turned-fiance (Scarlett Johansson)—have already been persuaded to concur by Zsa-zsa. But now that his enemies have committed price-fixing sabotage, Zsa-zsa has to use every possible strategy—from yelling threats to sports wagers to a gift basket filled with grenades—to persuade everyone to take a little less with the deal.

Although they are impressed by his dedication, the other characters are rarely moved. In one sentence, Wright’s Marty encapsulates Zsa-zsa’s appeal: “I suppose I’m moved by this absurd performance.”. which we are. . Del Toro’s charisma completely fills this role that is larger than life. He uses declarations, bluffs, and threats when speaking, and his hair stands on end when he gets excited. Every line that comes out of Zsa-zsa’s mouth is a zinger, a koan of mischief in its hypocrisy (“I’m willing to believe in the opposite of my convictions”) or delusional self-sufficiency (“I’ll save myself myself,” he declares, as quicksand rises over his hips). The script is all momentum and moxie.

White, gray, green, metal, and wood make up the elegant vintage color scheme of these 1950s adventures. The look is appropriate because only men who exude confidence are still in demand in today’s society. Filmmaker Werner Herzog is the only modern-day equivalent of Zsa-zsa, who staggers toward a news camera while clutching his innards (“a vestigial organ,” he shrugs), bloodied from his most recent near-death experience. Herzog was shot in the gut during an interview, but he dismissed it as “an insignificant bullet.”. “.”.

Even after revealing a magnificent working miniature with running water and toy trains—which exist primarily for the delightful inevitability that someone will inevitably stomp around on it like Godzilla—it is unclear exactly what Zsa-zsa’s passion project will accomplish. That doesn’t make the script weak. It appears that the idea is that the goal itself is the goal, and that achieving it is the accomplishment. Of course, money is involved as well, and the amount sounds impressive: 5% of the profits for the next 150 years. However, it is unlikely that Zsa-zsa will live long enough to enjoy the benefits. He is nearly killed six times throughout the film by bullets, bombs, poison gas, and a good old-fashioned clobbering.

Zsa-zsa sighs, “It’s a miracle if it works.”. Fortunately, he is traveling with his estranged daughter Liesl (played by a powerful Mia Threapleton), who aspires to become a nun and claims to be as loyal to piety as he is to racketeering. Liesl maintains that she has no interest in him or his money. Seeing these stark opposites converge and converge is the film’s central theme. Their tutor, Bjørn (Michael Cera), is also present. He describes himself as a bohemian and speaks in a sing-songy Swedish accent that makes every syllable in the sentence stand out: “Beer is de-li-ci-ous.”. Cera’s mincing theatrical manners and owlish orange glasses seem to be tailored to Anderson’s aesthetic. He’s as accurate as the precise camera movement that pans to a visual gag or the gridded tile floors in the production design.

In a world full of philistines, Anderson has been using his perfectionist style to honor artists who produce masterpieces and to defend ambition itself. The only thing he loves more than a carved credenza (in this case, it’s adorned with hieroglyphics) is the artist who created it and the buyer who chose to purchase it rather than a throwaway item. Before “The Grand Budapest Hotel” brought Anderson into sharper focus, I had never been a fan. When he tried to sell us on human love in his earlier films, it was difficult to believe he understood what he was talking about. However, I’ll purchase a hotelier’s love of linens.

Anderson is honoring the art of the spiel and capitalism, which artists are meant to oppose, with “The Phoenician Scheme.”. There is no vulgarian in Zsa-Zsa. He purchases excellent works by the dozen because he is a voracious thinker who appreciates the practical worth of a masterpiece. However, the majority of his oil paintings are left stacked against the walls of his 16th-century palazzo like dollar records at a flea market because he doesn’t bother mounting them.

And yet, a financial contract itself can be a thing of beauty. Lord knows, you have to broker a lot of them to make a movie. Observing Zsa-zsa’s verbal pirouettes made me think positively of a former boyfriend who worked as an independent film producer and helped me negotiate a $3,000 price reduction on a new car. The salesman smiled, “A gentleman negotiator.”. I seemed to have introduced Fred Astaire to Ginger Rogers.

The movie is devoted to Anderson’s late father-in-law, Fouad Malouf, an engineer and businessman who, in the same shoeboxes that now house Zsa-zsa’s blueprints, hid his own plans. However, the character is more of a parody of the real-life oil magnate Calouste Gulbenkian, who was the richest man in the world when he passed away in 1955 and served as a model for today’s international tycoons who swear loyalty to their own goals alone. Gulbenkian turned down a British knighthood, and Zsa-zsa avoids passports? Zsa-zsa has also inherited Gulbenkian’s nickname, Mr. Five Per Cent, and his archenemy, Nubar (Benedict Cumberbatch), a half-brother who shares the same name, beard, and horned eyebrows as Gulbenkian’s son, a playboy who filed a $10 million lawsuit because he was so furious that his father would not allow him to charge $4.50 for a chicken lunch.

“This house is devoid of love,” Liesl says. “God is not present. There is a lot of religious cross-talk that isn’t totally coherent. Frequently, Zsa-zsa declares that Nubar “isn’t human, he’s biblical.”. What that means is up to you to guess. Some kind of Old Testament revenge? Meanwhile, the imagery includes everything from the Egyptian god of the dead, Anubis, to Liesl’s profanely adorned rosary, which ultimately represents her temptation to become like her father. It’s important to note that hope Davis’s portrayal of her mother superior as avaricious disappoints us more than her father’s egregious fraud. If nothing else, Zsa-zsa takes pride in his transgressions.

Or is he? Every time he gets close to death, he’s forced to stare eternal judgment in the face via black-and-white fantasy sequences in which Bill Murray plays God, with Willem Dafoe, F. Charlotte Gainsbourg and Murray Abraham are his celestial entourage. Beautiful, poetic, and blatantly Bergmanesque are these scenes. There is a sense of divine awe as a result of them and the knowledge that ancient religions have constructed temples and pyramids that will endure longer than anything our century’s billionaires could build.

You don’t need to think that there is a force greater than Zsa-zsa or even money itself. If that doesn’t touch you, at least Anderson is worthy of respect for figuring out how to get all these A-list actors to play in his film for pennies. He has created another masterpiece, a monument to his own drive and skill. Additionally, even though the corners can feel a little drafty at times, the accomplishment is still quite impressive.