Let's start with Royal. His original faults include being a father that outwardly favors one of his children, separates but won't divorce his wife after 17 years, lies about having cancer, and just generally not being a good father in any sense of the phrase. By the end of the film, there was no reversing all these things, but Royal managed to leave his family some happy memories to remember him with. He divorced Etheline, he immediately rushed to the hospital to see Richie, saved his grandkids from being crushed by Eli's car, and even replaced the dog that did. His gravestone read that he died saving a family from a sinking battleship, and in a way he did: the Tenenbaums were drowning in despair, and Royal brought them back to the surface, letting them breathe freely.
Now for the kids.
One of the comedic things about this movie were the juxtapositions of having young children having careers, then growing up to act like children, wardrobe included in the case of Chas. Before Royal reentered their lives, the Tenenbaum children has reversed into being the kids they never got to be. Right before and after Royal's death though, the kids changed because they all became the adult versions of what they originally were. That means that instead of an international tennis star, Richie taught the sport instead. Chas learned to be a good father, and not shelter his own children from something he can't stop. Margot finally wrote a new play, but this time around it was about her own family, making her address her own problems. They grew up normally in the end, it just took a lot more time and soul-searching before they got there.
And of course, Eli was an honorary Tenenbaum... But did he ever manage to change like the others? Yes he checked himself into rehab, but is that enough for Eli to emerge as his own person for good?
Even though Eli checked into rehab in the end, it might not have been enough to change him. Throughout the movie he never really changed, only got worse. But going to rehab was a big step for him to take. He changed a little. Because when Richie and Royal originally went to his house to take him to rehab he ran away from them. But at the wedding he finally realized what he has gotten himself into. He never changed as much as the Tenenbaums did, but he did change.
ReplyDeleteI really liked this blog! I think that it's really great that you showed parallels between what was written on Royal's gravestone and what he had done in the last few months of his life for his family. When I watched the movie, I thought that what was written on his gravestone was just an element of Wes Anderson's comedic genius. However, I think that after reading your blog I can see that really the funny statement on his gravestone has a double meaning. I also liked the idea you expressed that the Tenenbaum children started out as adults and grew into children, kind of like reverse maturing. I would've never thought of that as being symbolism in the movie! To answer your question at the end, I truly don't really think that Eli changed that much just because he checked into rehab. He didn't really seem to be any more mature than he was before, and he is seen in the last scenes as someone who's playing with his rehab companions on a rooftop. He hasn't changed as a character just because he was in a near-death situation that prompted him to finally check himself into a rehabilitation facility.
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