The Reel Review
Wealthy business tycoon Zsa-zsa Korda must escape numerous attempts on his life while planning a new fundraising scheme in the once ancient land of Phoenicia (modern day Lebanon, Israel and Syria) with the help of his assistant and estranged daughter. Benicio Del Toro, Mia Threapleton and Michael Cera star in this action/comedy from co-writer/director Wes Anderson.
While some hardcore fans of Anderson’s trademark droll, quirky humor and distinctive color palette will love this comedy, for most viewers, The Phoenician Scheme is a confusing and boring mess, hampered by a muddled story and a lot of repetitiveness that even a cavalcade of stars (Tom Hanks, Scarlett Johansson, Benedict Cumberbatch, Willem Dafoe, etc.) cannot overcome.
Del Toro gives a solid performance as Korda, the billionaire tycoon, with a quirky Threapleton as his estranged only daughter who is also a nun and Cera as his assistant and U.S. government spy. Technically, the quickly forgettable The Phoenician Scheme looks and sounds a lot better on paper than it plays out on the big screen.
REEL FACTS
• The name Zsa-zsa Korda was presumably derived from two of Hungary’s most famous film icons, Zsa Zsa Gabor and the movie-making brothers Alexander, Vincent and Zoltan Korda.
• Mia Threapleton is the daughter of actress Kate Winslet, the youngest person to acquire six Academy Award nominations, seven in total, winning the Oscar for 2008’s The Reader.
• Benicio Del Toro says he accepted the part based on 20 pages of script that Wes Anderson sent him – the first sequence of Korda with his daughter.
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