Wes Anderson’s latest film is a slower and more meditative turn for the esteemed director. Head of Reviews Robert Flynn describes how The Phoenician Scheme turns a tale of financial gaps and assassination attempts into a delightfully simple and introspective film.
As Wes Anderson has begun to enjoy a later stage in his filmmaking career where his cinematic style and distinctive rhythm of storytelling have each seemed to reach their fine-tuned peaks, there has been a tendency for critics and fans to approach each successive film with a degree of doubt. The French Dispatch (2021) and Asteroid City (2023) both faced scrutiny upon their release for this very reason. Many made the case that Anderson was a hack, throwing out every trick in his cinematic toolbox all while neglecting to provide any real substance. As is the case with all of Anderson’s films, there is plentiful amounts of profundity for those who choose to read between the lines.
His latest film, The Phoenician Scheme (2025) is in conversation with the directors later works through its focus on existential themes, though, Anderson’s presentation of his tale of espionage, plane crashes, and wiry business tycoons detracts greatly from the rhythm of what we have become to collectively recognise as a “Wes Anderson Film”. The Phoenician Scheme is a slow and pensive story about personal doctrine with a Dickensian view of morality and the style of an early Powell & Pressburger or David Lean drama.
Similarly to the introduction of Citizen Kane (1941), The Phoenician Scheme opens with the supposed death of its lead character Zsa-zsa Korda (Benicio del Toro). His obituary is then broadcasted and his legacy professed, painting Korda as a ruthless and morally dubious business-diplomatic figure that would stop at nothing to “win” at all aspects of his life. Such a merciless lifestyle invites a bountiful amount of global disruption and a slate of enemies which is why an American Governmental agency forces a calculated touch of financial disruption and sabotage in Korda’s most prized markets to create a gap that Korda must fill or lose the entirety of his fortune.
Before embarking on a trip to enlist the financial resources of his closest business partners in order to close the gap, Korda meets with his presumed daughter Liesl (Mia Threapleton), a blunt and independent nun who he wishes to make the sole heir to his entire fortune (despite his nine sons, each of which belongs to a different mother). Liesl reluctantly agrees to become heir to his fortune, and a regular figure in Korda’s life, if he helps to bring her Uncle Nabur (Benedict Cumberbatch), who murdered her mother, to justice. After the financial gap is created, Liesl joins Korda with the aid of ungainly on-the-go-tutor Bjorn (Michael Cera) to secure Korda’s fortune, all while evading several assassination attempts on Korda’s life.
Anderson’s linear approach to unraveling this busy narrative noticeably aberrates from the layered, mult-narrative structure of his later output, which is to say that there is much more air in The Phoenician Scheme than is usual for the director. Dialogue is less snappy and witty, time spent with Korda, Liesl and Bjorn feels intentionally reflective, and the scale and design of each gloriously articulated set is allowed to be fully taken in. Conversations, heightened by an ensemble cast of some of Hollywood’s greatest talents, concerned with lessening the market gap build much of the runtime, however, where The Phoenician Scheme shines is in its contemplative moments where our three protagonists become suddenly introspective, confessing the beliefs and insights that have driven them to this peculiar point in life.
As in Asteroid City, Anderson is once again asking - "What's it all for?”. Liesl unconvincingly stands by her “devoutness” to religious doctrine despite the charm of Bjorn while Korda wearily tries to convince himself that lessening the daunting financial gap, almost entirely on principle, is worthwhile. Each character tries to rid themselves of accountability by correlating their beliefs to their upbringing. As the trio tries to rack up the finances to save Korda’s fortune, they begin to question the rigid ideals of material wealth and doctrine that they have chosen to live by.
While The Phoenician Scheme is not a major work for Wes Anderson, it is a simple, delicately crafted and perfectly charming watch. It is a film that is most concerned with investigating its characters above all else, making for a delightful and pensive narrative about questioning our most tightly held, self imposed principles through the lens of an exciting and humorous caper.