‘The Phoenician Scheme’ movie review: Benicio Del Toro, Michael Cera shine in Wes Anderson pastiche

A wealthy businessman dodges assassination attempts and bonds with his estranged daughter and future heir while embarking on a new venture in The Phoenician Scheme, which premiered in competition at the Cannes Film Festival last month and opens in Prague and cinemas worldwide this weekend. This prototypical Wes Anderson pastiche has all of the pleasures of the filmmaker’s style in abundance—but also an aloof story that never fully draws us in. Alongside The French Dispatch, it rates as one of his weaker recent enterprises, but still one fully deserving of appreciation.

The Phoenician Scheme stars Benicio Del Toro as Anatole “Zsa-Zsa” Korda, a 1950s industrialist of vague distinction who Anderson and co-writer Roman Coppola partially based on real-life Armenian oil magnate Calouste Gulbenkian. In the film’s opening scene—which is pretty shocking for an Anderson film—Korda’s assistant is blown in half in an assassination attempt aboard his private jet while the businessman miraculously survives a crash landing.

Sensing his death may be impending, and aiming to ensure the success of his future long-term ventures, Korda sends for his chosen heir: daughter Liesl (Mia Threapleton). Liesl is a nun in training who Korda hasn’t seen in six years, yet he selects her as the sole inheritor of his estate over his nine sons for reasons he keeps to himself. He brings her in on his latest project, which is only fleetingly detailed throughout the narrative despite serving as its central thread.

It involves a massive tunnel and hydroelectric dam in Phoenicia, which may be modern-day Lebanon or may only exist in Andersonville. To ensure the project is realized, Korda has outlined a plan in documents contained in a series of shoeboxes that becomes The Phoenician Scheme‘s amusing story chapters.

Together with tutor-cum-assistant Bjørn (Michael Cera), Korda and Liesl travel to meet with Prince Farouk (Riz Ahmed), brothers Leland (Tom Hanks) and Regan (Bryan Cranston), who represent the Sacramento Consortium, U.S. shipping magnate Marty (Jeffrey Wright), French nightclub owner Marseille Bob (Mathieu Amalric), Korda’s distant Cousin Hilda (Scarlett Johansson), and finally, his nefarious half-brother Uncle Nubar (Benedict Cumberbatch), who may also be responsible for the murder of his wife and Liesl’s mother.

Korda also gets entangled with U.S. government agent Excaliber (Rupert Friend), whose plot to drive up the price of bashable rivets results in huge cost overruns, and a group of freedom fighters led by Sergio (Richard Ayoade). He also dodges additional assassination attempts along the way, which result in near-death experiences recounted through dream sequences starring Bill Murray as God and F. Murray Abraham and Willem Dafoe as other heavenly bodies.

These actors are all fun to watch, and many come from the usual Anderson talent pool. But there are two noteworthy newcomers: Ayoade, whose deadpan delivery is a perfect match for the director’s style, and Cera, who goes in the entirely opposite direction with an over-the-top Norwegian accent and walks away with the movie. It’s hard to imagine neither of these actors have worked with Wes Anderson previously.

Del Toro was a highlight in The French Dispatch as a persecuted artist, and brings a similar energy to an entirely different characterization here. He plays Zsa-Zsa with an understated sincerity unusual for most performances in Anderson’s films, and gives real weight to a character who should otherwise be—shades of Gene Hackman in The Royal Tenenbaums—beyond redemption. Threapleton, too, brings some unexpected gravitas to her role; the Korda-Liesl dynamic is the closest thing The Phoenician Scheme has to a beating heart.

Anderson’s best films, like Tenenbaums and The Grand Hotel Budapest and Asteroid City in recent years, have a way of getting to us through the style: underneath all the artifice, we can connect with the characters on a human level. The Phoenician Scheme, despite offering rather direct commentary on relationships, wealth, and man’s confrontation with his own inevitable death, never really gets there. It’s fun spending time with these distinct and memorable characters, but do we care what happens to them? Nah.

Still, the film is so immaculately put together, with beautifully boxy 4:3 cinematography from Bruno Delbonnel and Alexandre Desplat’s omni-present, classical-influenced score, that it’s hard to complain. The Phoenician Scheme may rate as more of a fleeting trifle next to Anderson’s best films, but it’s one that will nevertheless enthrall viewers both well-versed in the director’s oeuvre and those watching one of his films for the very first time: up against whatever else is playing in cinemas, this one is worth investing in.