Title – The Phoenician Scheme (2025)

Director – Wes Anderson (Bottle Rocket)

Cast – Benicio Del Toro, Mia Threapleton, Michael Cera, Tom Hanks, Bryan Cranston, Jeffrey Wright, Scarlett Johansson

Plot – Mysterious businessman Zsa-zsa Korda (Del Toro) and his daughter/chosen heir Liesl (Threapleton) set about completing a grand project all the while dealing with multiple assassination attempts on Zsa-zsa’s life as his competitors attempt to finally put a stop to his globally disruptive plans.  

“I feel very safe”

Review by Eddie on 06/10/2025

With all the hallmarks and trademarks of what usually makes a great Wes Anderson film, loaded cast, arresting visuals, quirky humour and a unique storyline filled with weird and whacky undertones, everything about Anderson’s newest feature length venture The Phoenician Scheme points to a return to form but unfortunately this forgettable and hard to love dramedy adventure is the directors weakest effort yet.

Following on from the critically lauded but instantly forgotten Asteroid City, many hoped Anderson would get back onto the path that saw him become one of the most admired directors in Hollywood with the likes of The Grand Budapest Hotel, The Fantastic Mr. Fox, Moonrise Kingdom and The Royal Tenenbaums all helping establishing his artist brand to high levels but without being alarmist, it appears now that Anderson has run out of new ideas as he chases that ever elusive cloud of past glories.

Here telling the extremely uninteresting story of Benicio Del Toro’s filthy rich businessman Zsa-zsa Korda trying to accomplish his latest money making project alongside his daughter and anointed heir Liesl (played by up and comer Mia Threapleton) all the while trying to outsmart a large collection of would-be assassins and assassination attempts, Scheme struggles in the most basic of ways to create and engaging movie watching experience that gets by here thanks to the as to be expected visual offerings and simplistic pleasures of witnessing a boatload of A-grade actors appear along Zsa-zsa’s journey.

A proven performer in the comedy landscape, Del Toro is a stable presence throughout Anderson’s hard to fall for offering but he is overshadowed by some scene-stealing cameos from the likes of Tom Hanks, Bryan Cranston, Jeffrey Wright and even I.T Crowd MVP Richard Ayoade while Michael Cera gets to enjoy one of his more notable roles in years as softly spoken bug expert Bjorn but all of these tried and true performers and willing interplay between the cast can’t overcome the fact Scheme just isn’t that smart, funny or interesting with visuals and novelty factors only getting you so far.

Strangely emotionless, this is a far cry from the impactful moments found in Anderson’s most poignant affairs while the signposted jokes and failed zingers feel more like a desperate attempt of the film for us to look it and laugh rather than just let things organically unfold with it getting to a point where even the most adamant of Anderson backers and fans must be growing increasingly concerned their favourite auteur has lost his mojo.

12 feature films into his directional career now, it’s hard to imagine that Anderson doesn’t have more to give but if what he has to give is going to be in the same ilk of this, Asteroid City and The French Dispatch, it’s hard to imagine viewers are going to stick it out for the ride with Scheme’s box office figures and lack of interest showcasing a clear waning of interest from a once more than willing global audience.

Final Say –

With a plot line you’ll grow tired of well before the half way mark and with an accompaniment of tiresome gags and quirks, The Phoenician Scheme is arguably Anderson’s weakest feature film yet and a further unnotable addition to his concerningly wavering C.V.

2 hand grenades out of 5