One thing that I picked up on while watching The Royal Tenenbaums was Wes Anderson's use of subtable changes within the characters. For example in the beginning of the movie Royal Tenenbaum was shown wearing a pair of dark sunglasses. As a viewer one might ask why is Royal wearing the sunglasses? I believe that he is wearing these in the very beginning is to show how disconnected from he is from his children. Not only is he wearing sunglasses which hide his eyes, he's sitting on the complete opposite end of the table where he kids are no where close to. Royal wasn't on good terms with his children for most of his life until he decided he needed to change it.Royal started to come reach out to his family after six years of no speaking to them. He was getting kicked out of his hotel because he was broke and had no where else to go so he finds his ex-wife and tells her that he is dying of a deadly cancer. Later on in the movie the you find out that he lied about ever having cancer and it was all just a scam to have a place to live. Although, Royal did such an awful thing to his family, he did it with good intentions. At first he just needed money and a place to go he soon came to realize that he misses his family. Although it wasn't said through the dialogue it was implied through his change in character. Later on in the movie Royal stops wearing sunglasses around his family and changes to wearing clear glasses. Wearing this clear glasses implies that Royal is opening up to his family and that he's changing who he used to be. The clear glasses were a subtle change in his character, but a significant one. Do you think that in the beginning Royal was hiding from his kids by wearing sunglasses? Do you believe that he has changed? and for the better?
I agree with you that the change in sunglasses was very significant. Richie also had a similar change, when he took off his headband and sunglasses during his suicide scene. This makes him very vulnerable because it is the first time we see him without a headband. I think it is interesting how even though the film spans over 22 years, the characters all wear similar clothing, with small, subtle changes. I do think that in the beginning Royal was attempting to hide from his kids behind his shades, especially in the scene where he tells them about the separation. Towards the end of the film his glasses are clear which reveals how he was ready to connect with his family. I do think that he changed because in one scene he says he wants to get close to his children and then the narrator says, "immediately after saying this, Royal knew it was true". Although he did want to repair his relationship with his kids, he was still very self centered. This can be seen at his funeral, where his gravestone complements him for being so noble.
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