It's very funny and well-acted, and I found it difficult not to like.
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The Royal Tenenbaums
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Is it age appropriate?
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Not age appropriate for kids under 15, age appropriate for kids over 16; suggested age 15. -
Is it any good?
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Common Sense says
Quirky extended-family story with dry adult humor.
Why We Rated This 
for Ages 15–16
What to watch out for
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Violence:
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Sex:
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What Parents Need to Know
About The Royal Tenenbaums
Parents need to know that this movie has very mature material including a graphic and bloody suicide attempt, sexual references and situations (adultery and a possible romance between adopted siblings), and painful issues of betrayal and deception. There are references to a tragic death. An adopted child is made to feel like an outsider. A character has a serious drug abuse problem. Some people may find the light-hearted treatment of these issues offensive and kids will probably miss the dry humor completely.
Read our full review by Nell Minow
Families Can Talk About
- Families can talk about whether this wild exaggeration of family communication problems can be of help to families who are struggling to connect to each other. How can parents stimulate and support gifted children without making them feel isolated from friends and family? Eli says to Royal "I always wanted to be a Tenenbaum," and Royal responds, "So did I." What does that mean? Why did such accomplished children become such fragile adults? Why did Chas react to his wife's death by becoming obsessed with safety?
Our Members Say
Most Recent Reviews
- I rate this title iffy for age 14 and give it
e.g. Perfect for older kids, but not for tweens
- I rate this title iffy for age 2 and give it
Incredible movie.
The Royal Tenenbaums is about a group of gifted, famous children and their mother Etheline Tenenbaum and father Royal Tenenbaum. Chas was a financeer, Margot was a playwright, and Richie was a star tennis player. Their father Royal Tenenbaums. After Royal and Etheline's divorce, the gifted children's future was ruined by 10 eyars of betrayal and disaster. Now after not seeing his family for 3 years, Royal Tenenbaum fakes a terminal illness in order to see his family again. This movie's great and incredibly underrated by Common Sense Media. I mean come on, 3 stars? Easily 4 stars, maybe 5. As well as the Wes Anderson movies as well. Maybe not Life Aquatic considering it wasn't critically recieved that great. This movie contains dark, witty, and subtle jokes. There's also some technical incest from abopted siblings, a naked woman as an ad for one of Margot's plays, a flip through of Margot's files including a part entitled "Rive Gauche`" with a topless woman and Margot kissing. The language is pretty minor, but the violence is much stronger. You might as well just read the CS review for that one. Richie tries to commit suicide by slitting his wrists(not as graphic as it could be but very, very dark.) All in all, this movie is about a family that truly loves eachother in it's own unique way whether they wanna admit it or not. Amazing 5-star movie.
- I rate this title iffy for age 2 and give it
- I rate this title iffy for age 2 and give it
Amazing movie if you enjoy subtle, dark humor. Not for everybody, but I loved it.
- I rate this title on for age 2 and give it
Fine
Rushmore is better.
- I rate this title iffy for age 2 and give it
'Common Sense' left out a few details
I enjoyed it very much. There were no brandnames, which added humor to the film--the taxi service was called gypsy taxi co., the bus service was green line. Common Sense did not mention the poster of the fully nude woman the chain of clips with shirtless woman exchanging homosexual kisses. Otherwise, this film was excellent.
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