The Phoenician Scheme is a little odd but I laughed plenty and broadly enjoyed it! One of the lead roles is played by a young woman who was unfamiliar to me, Mia Threapleton, and I spent the whole film thinking, this woman is flippin’ incredible! How have I never seen her before?! Anyways, turns out Mia is the daughter of Kate Winslet so not exactly a surprise that she’s hella talented.
Mia steals the show in The Phoenician Scheme as Liesl Korda, a nun and daughter of Zsa-Zsa Korda, the other lead role in the film, played by Benicio Del Toro. Zsa-Zsa is trying “to dominate the economy of a fictional Middle Eastern nation with an interlocking series of mining transportation and fishing ventures, by using exploitative slave labour and moreover manipulating the agricultural market in such a way as to cause famine.” The smaller characters with whom he must negotiate are played by some BIG names which is amazing and a credit to director Wes Anderson who was presumably the draw card to attract their participation. Tom Hanks’ role was modest but Willem Dafoe’s is positively tiny. Willem Dafoe for crying out loud! I love that guy! And he’s in this film for, like, a minute or maybe two. Michael Cera is a key player in the film and very funny and likeable per usual.
I rarely talk about directors on this blog because part of the origin story of its purpose is my desire to give what many people want rather than an in-depth critique; that is, a quick ‘yeah see this’ or ‘hell no, this is awful’. But Wes Anderson is a man with many, many very committed fans who are waiting to hear what his new film is like and on that front I’m here to say that it’s PRETTY Wes Anderson but not VERY Wes Anderson. So if you’re a Wes Anderson-stan it might not be weird and wonderfully Wes-ish enough for you. But for those like me who aren’t really observing such things, this is a bit of fun.
The Phoenician Scheme is in cinemas now, rated M and runs for 101 minutes. Click on the linked section of text above that’ll take you to The Guardian’s three star review if you’re keen to read more.