Reviews

Review: The French Dispatch

25 November 202123 November 2021By
Review: The French Dispatch

Wes Anderson’s latest film, ‘The French Dispatch’, is here and it doesn’t fail to amaze. Anderson is known for his quirky style. From The Grand Budapest Hotel to The Royal Tenenbaums he manages to intertwine the ludicrous craziness of life with honest reflections on reality. His films tend to provide you with a colourful, chaotic and dreamlike world that allows you to escape the mundane.

Rating: 4/5

Synopsis:

In The French Dispatch, we are transported to the small French town of Ennui-Sur-Blasé through the publication called The French Dispatch. The film serves as a visual representation of the stories the paper includes, while also giving us an insight into the running of the paper itself.

The film documents the paper’s final issue which consists of a travel guide of Ennui-Sur-Blasé, two features and the obituary of the founder and Editor in Chief, Arthur Howitzer Jr, played by Bill Murray. Each article stands alone, making the film feel like a catalogue of short stories. However, the running of the newspaper creates an overarching narrative throughout the film. The paper acts as a mirror of Arthur Howitzer Jr’s life, as when his life comes to a close, so does the paper. 

Firstly, we hear from Herbsaint Sazerac, played by Owen Wilson, who provides a guide to the town of Ennui-Sur-Blasé, where all the following stories take place. We then see a story based on the artistic brilliance of an imprisoned murderer, followed by a tale of the trials and tribulations of a student rebellion. The final story of the paper highlights the importance of food when trying to rescue a kidnapped child. It’s this fascinating array of stories that makes the film so captivating and unexpected.

The Internal World of Wes Anderson:

Bob Balaban, who plays Uncle Nick, states that “this is inside of Wes’ mind. Everything about it is chock full of surprises and interesting twists and turns”. This full immersion into the crazy creativity of Anderson allows you to fully escape. I can’t imagine anyone worrying about everyday anxieties while watching this film. Its constant changes of form and colour, live-action and cartoon, engulfs the viewer and doesn’t spit them out until the final credits. And even then, it leaves your brain spinning.

Abundantly Charming or Disappointing?

Mark Kermode states that you will find the film either abundantly charming or like a box of fondant fancies, wherefrom the outside it looks delicious but after you’ve eaten three you have had enough. I think this comes from its format. Through its form of mainly short and separate stories, it is easy to lose any emotional attachment. As an audience, we get invested in the characters and want to see them through to the end. However, Anderson’s film gives us snippets of these incredibly interesting people, but then we do not see them again. This leads us to possibly become fed up after the first two or three.

It is this element that prevents the film from having much of an emotional pull. Something that The Grand Budapest Hotel mastered and was the better for it. Throughout I wanted to see all these separate stories come together and when they didn’t, I couldn’t help feeling disappointed and deflated.

A Gathering of Hollywood’s Finest:

However, you can’t deny the spectacular cast (and I am not just saying that as an obsessed Timothée Chalamet fan). Bill Murray, Tilda Swinton, Adrien Brody, Léa Seydoux, Owen Wilson, William Defoe are just a handful of the incredible actors that Anderson has gathered together. Each one encapsulates their role perfectly and prevents you from being able to take your eyes off the screen. This sheer celebrity presence shows Anderson’s prestige in the film world.

If you are looking for an evening of colourful escapism this is the film for you. Also, for any budding writers, the film is full of storytelling advice. My favourite takeaway was that with anything you write “try and make it sound like you wrote it that way on purpose”. Despite its problems, it is full of unique, witty and beautiful moments that will take you away from the boring every day and transport you to the almost magical world of Ennui-Sur-Blasé.

Read More on films here: London Film Festival: The essential review roundup