The Phoenician Scheme (2025) Focus/Comedy RT: 101 minutes Rated PG-13 (violent content, bloody images, some sexual material, nude images) Director: Wes Anderson Screenplay: Wes Anderson Music: Alexandre Desplat Cinematography: Bruno Delbonnel Release date: May 30, 2025 (US, limited)/June 6, 2025 (US, wide) Cast: Benicio del Toro, Mia Threapleton, Michael Sera, Riz Ahmed, Tom Hanks, Bryan Cranston, Mathieu Amalric, Richard Ayoade, Jeffrey Wright, Scarlett Johansson, Benedict Cumberbatch, Rupert Friend, Hope Davis, Bill Murray, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Willem Dafoe, F. Murray Abraham, Stephen Park, Alex Jennings, Jason Watkins, Donald Sumpter, Scott Shepherd, Karl Markovics, Tonio Arango, Stephane Bak, Aysha Joy Samuel.
Rating: ** ½
I normally love Wes Anderson’s films. He’s so stylistically eccentric with the square aspect ratio and use of actual 35mm Kodak film. He meticulously arranges each shot to look like one of those shoebox dioramas we used to make in grade school. Every prop has a vintage look to it like he bought them at thrift shops. His characters deliver their dialogue in a deadpan manner. Wes is a true craftsman. He continues all this in his latest comedy The Phoenician Scheme. Unfortunately, this time it feels like he made the movie on autopilot. It has all the right parts in all the right places, but his heart just isn’t in it this time.
I was so rapt in taking in the sights and sounds, it took me a while to realize there isn’t much of a plot to The Phoenician Scheme. I mean, there is something that resembles a plot, but it’s really more like connective tissue, something to hold together the various set-pieces as the protagonist goes from one character to the next in search of funding for some big project. What that project is exactly, I couldn’t say, but I think that’s Wes’ intention. The more important thing is the guy at the center of it all and his journey to self-discovery.
The main character of The Phoenician Scheme is Zsa-Zsa Korda (Toro, The French Dispatch), a super-wealthy business tycoon who’s already survived six assassination attempts including the one that opens the film. Realizing he could go at any moment, he decides to hand over all his affairs to his estranged daughter Liesl (Threapleton, TV’s Dangerous Liaisons), a novitiate nun who believes he was involved in her mother’s death. His big project [aka “The Phoenician Scheme’] is put at risk by a group of rival businessmen out to destroy Korda. His only move is to visit his investors and convince them to put up the money he needs to complete it. That, of course, will not be easy.
Korda’s investors include the following: Prince Farouk of Phoenicia (Ahmed, Sound of Metal), brothers Leland (Hanks, Asteroid City) and Reagan (Cranston, Isle of Dogs), nightclub owner Marseille Bob (Amalric, The Grand Budapest Hotel), American investor Marty (Wright, The French Dispatch) second cousin and prospective wife Hilda (Johansson, Asteroid City) and half-brother Uncle Nubar (Cumberbatch, Doctor Strange). None of the visits turn out exactly how Korda would have liked.
The Phoenician Scheme is one of those instances where the sum of the parts is greater than the whole. I like many aspects of the film, but the overall experience is just a little more than okay. It’s funny in a dry, deadpan way. Although there are humorous moments like when Korda ejects a pilot from his crashing plane seconds after firing him, the real humor is in the actors’ delivery of their lines. It’s their not acting silly that makes it so silly. Oh and anybody who thinks Michael Cera (Superbad) is an untalented twerp will be surprised by his performance as a tutor brought in to teach Korda all about insects. He nearly steals the show as a meek, mold-mannered sort with more to him than meets the eye.
Benicio is quite good as Korda, a ruthless sort who desperately needs a lesson or several in humility. His journey is transformative as he realizes he really does want to reconnect with Liesl and not just for business reasons. Sure, we see it coming. Isn’t that the point of any personal journey? It’s not as emotionally effective as it would be in movies not directed by Wes Anderson, but did you expect. This is Wes Anderson we’re talking about here. Threapleton, Kate Winslet’s daughter in her first major film role, is very good as Liesl. I love how she never cracks a smile in the midst of all the silly goings-on. I wish Scarlett had a bigger role. I just love her.
What’s most interesting about The Phoenician Scheme is that Wes appears to be reaching for something deeper. He doesn’t just search for meaning in bureaucratic matters; he also looks for it in Biblical matters like when Korda visits the afterlife after each attempt on his life. He’s forced to confront his sins and shortcomings while God (played wonderfully by Bill Murray) listens. I do believe this is the deepest movie in Wes’ filmography. He does get there, but it doesn’t really give the film any weight. It’s still pretty slight.
I wouldn’t say I dislike The Phoenician Scheme. It’s fine. It’s just one of Wes’ lesser films. It’s not one that his fans will name as one of their faves. For me, his best is still The Royal Tenenbaums. It’s going to take a lot to top that one. The Phoenician Scheme doesn’t even come close. I’d say this one is for his fans only.
