The Phoenician Scheme review: Wes Anderson returns with a quirky and quaint tale of industrial espionage

Film fans looking for a rival spy movie to Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning will get a kick out of this latest confection from the eccentric American director.

★★★★☆

The Phoenician Scheme is in cinemas from Friday 23 May. Add it to your watchlist

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Wes Anderson’s latest film starts with a bang. Quite literally. It’s 1950, and we find ourselves on a plane somewhere above the Balkan flatlands. There sits wealthy tycoon Zsa-Zsa Korda (Benicio Del Toro) when, all of a sudden, an explosion blows out a hole in the back of the plane, leaving one poor soul splatted. Just his legs and a gruesome splash of blood on the wall remain. Korda then ejects the pilot (Stephen Park) and miraculously lives. “I’m still in the habit of surviving” reads one amusing newspaper headline.

With the film premiering in competition at the Cannes Film Festival just ahead of its May 23 release in the UK, it’s a promising start for what is Anderson’s twelfth feature (thirteenth, if you count his Oscar-winning Netflix anthology project, The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar and Six More).

Benicio Del Toro as Zsa-Zsa Korda, Michael Cera as Bjorn and Mia Threapleton as Liesl in The Phoenician Scheme.

Benicio Del Toro as Zsa-Zsa Korda, Michael Cera as Bjorn and Mia Threapleton as Liesl in The Phoenician Scheme. Universal

Casually moving into new terrain – this might be dubbed a tale of industrial espionage – it's a typically quirky offering with all the usual Anderson trappings: a starry ensemble cast (including his old pal Bill Murray, playing – who else? – God); fastidious production design from Adam Stockhausen; and heaps of arch humour.

Co-written by Anderson and his regular collaborator Roman Coppola, The Phoenician Scheme is a very quaint spy movie (even if it toys with the tropes of the genre, with scenes of morse code, sabotage, quicksand all present) and, at heart, is a father-daughter tale — as Korda decides to leave his entire estate to his only daughter, a devout nun named Liesl (Mia Threapleton, daughter of Jim Threapleton and Kate Winslet). Never mind he also has nine adopted sons, it’s his only female offspring that he entrusts.

Benicio Del Toro as Zsa-Zsa Korda and Mia Threapleton as Liesl in The Phoenician Scheme.

Benicio Del Toro as Zsa-Zsa Korda and Mia Threapleton as Liesl in The Phoenician Scheme. Universal

Meanwhile, a cadre of government officials (led by Rupert Friend) are plotting to bring Korda down, a man whose accumulated wealth has not always been acquired legally.

Certainly, he’s a man of no fixed abode, without even a passport to his name. “I don’t need any human rights,” he says. Despite also being under the belief that her father’s fortune has been gained through “unholy mischief”, Liesl agrees to take on the estate, under the impression that she can use his ill-gotten-gains for good.

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What follows sees Korda and Liesl connect with relatives and others as part of the titular infrastructure scheme that the businessman is proposing. Accompanying them is Michael Cera’s tutor-turned-administrative secretary, as they go through some weird encounters, including playing basketball with Tom Hanks and Bryan Cranston, and meets with Scarlett Johansson, as Cousin Hilda, and Benedict Cumberbatch’s Uncle Nubar, who may or may not have killed Liesl’s mother.

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As plot developments go, it’s sometimes baffling, sometimes inconsequential. But The Phoenician Scheme is still an enjoyable doodle from Anderson, benefitting from being one of the best cast of the director’s recent movies. Del Toro, who featured in Anderson’s 2021 film The French Dispatch, is fabulous as Korda, mixing mystery with menace. Likewise, Threapleton is a force of nature as the good-natured nun, while Scott Pilgrim… star Cera has a ball as Bjorn, complete with comedy European accent and a tarantula.

Mia Threapleton as Liesl in The Phoenician Scheme.

Mia Threapleton as Liesl in The Phoenician Scheme. Universal

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There are also cameos from the likes of The IT Crowd star Richard Ayoade (as a Communist Revolutionary) and Hope Davis (as Liesl’s Mother Superior), in what is a rich tapestry of talent. Coupled with some beautiful design from Stockhausen – the film was entirely shot in Studio Babelsberg in Berlin – it’s a feast for the eyes. Of course, it’s unlikely that those who are left cold by Anderson’s aesthetics will be persuaded to embrace him. But fans, especially those looking for a rival spy movie to the incoming Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning, should get a kick out of this latest confection.

Authors

James Mottram

James Mottram is a London-based film critic, journalist, and author.

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