Fingers Crossed for Roald

Perhaps I’m not getting the joke and somebody will put me right. We watched The Royal Tenenbaums on Saturday night, having hired the Digital Versatile Disc of said name from our local blockbusting rental store. It was dire. It lacked nothing in imagination but any fool can conjure up a hotchpotch of characters that are quirky and zany and eccentric. Making them do humorous things and utter interesting and thought-provoking and amusing comments is more challenging. This film consisted only of set piece after set piece that looked fairly interesting and visually stimulating but lacked any warmth, depth or intelligence. It was possibly the worst feature film I’ve seen since The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou which was equally shallow and shocking and which I gave a right blasting a year and a half ago. Is it a coincidence that they were both directed by the same fellow? I notice that Wes Anderson is behind the camera for the forthcoming Fantastic Mr Fox feature. I do hope dear Mr Dahl isn’t made to turn in his grave by an unnecessarily wacky and, as a result, dull treatment of a perfectly decent and much loved novel.