THE PHOENICIAN SCHEME : Tuesday 3rd June 2025

I saw the M Rated 'THE PHOENICIAN SCHEME' at my local independent movie theatre this week, and this US and German Co-Produced espionage black comedy film is Produced, Written and Directed by Wes Anderson from a story he conceived with Roman Coppola. Anderson's previous feature film credits take in the likes of his debut in 1996 with 'Bottle Rocket', and which he would follow up with other offerings including 'The Royal Tenenbaums' in 2001, 'The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou' in 2004, 'Fantastic Mr. Fox' in 2009, 'The Grand Budapest Hotel' in 2014, 'Isle of Dogs' in 2018, 'The French Dispatch' in 2021, and 'Asteroid City' in 2023. This film Premiered in the main competition at this years Cannes Film Festival in mid-May, was released in the USA and here in Australia last week, has so far recovered US$8M from its production budget of US$30M and has garnered generally positive critical reviews. 

The film opens with wealthy businessman, arms dealer and derring-do multi-millionaire Anatole 'Zsa-Zsa' Korda (Benicio del Toro) narrowly avoiding the latest in a string of assassination attempts on his life when his private plane that he is flying in is sabotaged by unknown assassins. The plane crashes down in a cornfield, and he succumbs to his injuries. He briefly passes into the afterlife where his suitability to be admitted into the great here after is being determined by a council of existential beings, who reject him and thus he returns to this mortal coil.

Being fully aware that he narrowly escaped death, Korda offers an olive branch to his only daughter whom he is not seen in six years, the novice nun, Sister Liesl (Mia Threapleton), to take over from him on a trial basis while he gets his affairs in order, and in the event that further attempts on his life are ultimately successful. His meeting with Liesl is observed by Bjorn Lund (Michael Cera), a Norwegian entomologist hired by Korda to tutor him in his latest interest, insects of all kinds. Korda takes Bjorn on board as his personal administrative assistant. 

Korda, known unfavourably as 'Mr. Five Per Cent' on account of his ability to intervene in any large deal, is a wanted man, and a shady business consortium, directed by Excalibur (Rupert Friend), unites to fix the price of core materials, mainly crushable rivets, that will cripple Korda’s grand scheme to overhaul the infrastructure of Phoenicia. The price fixing has huge implications for what Korda calls 'The Gap' (the funding deficit of his major capital works) and so he must meet with his network of underground fixers and investors to cover the missing funds. First he heads to Phoenicia and meets with Prince Farouk (Riz Ahmed), who helps thwart a further assassination attempt. Farouk, Korda, Liesl and Bjorn head into a half-built underground railway, which has come to a building halt with Leland (Tom Hanks) and Reagan (Bryan Cranston) having stopped construction works in protest at Korda having changed the terms of their original agreement. Farouk and Korda compete with Leland and Reagan in a game of H-O-R-S-E, despite Farouk having absolutely no knowledge of basketball, with Korda vowing to return to the original deal and cover more of The Gap if his side loses. Farouk manages to complete a half court shot and Leland and Reagan agree to cover 15% of the deficit. 

Later, Korda meets with Marseille Bob (Mathieu Amalric) where it turns out that he has also changed the terms of an existing deal, forcing Bob into a rage and leading him to pull out of the deal completely. Their meeting is cut short when Sergio (Richard Ayoade) and his revolutionary guerilla forces hold Bob’s nightclub at gun point. Bob urges them to stand down and Korda takes a bullet to his lower right side for his friend in the crossfire. Bob, to compensate Korda, vows to cover his share of The Gap.

Next the group head to a ship to meet Marty (Jeffrey Wright), a fast-talking American investor. Marty is also stung by Korda’s backtracking on an existing deal, but quickly leaps to Korda’s aid when he passes-out from the after effects of being shot. Marty offers Korda a blood transfusion and they negotiate as blood is passed from one to the other. Korda realises the deal is going bust and threatens to pull the pin on a hand grenade he had offered as a gift unless Marty concedes, which he does.

They move on and meet with Cousin Hilda (Scarlett Johansson), who is Korda's second cousin and his prospective wife. She accepts a proposal of engagement but refuses to weigh in on helping with the gap, which puts the pressure on Korda to strike an agreement with his nefarious half-brother Nubar (Benedict Cumberbatch) who he has told Liesl is responsible for the death of her mother. 

On the way to the final meeting, Bjorn is revealed to be an agent of the consortium, but he joins up with Korda and Liesl, having developed genuine feelings towards her. At the meeting of various syndicates and investors, Nubar declines to cover any of The Gap, reveals himself as the organiser of Korda's assassination attempts and decides to kill his brother himself. Korda manages to fend him off and subdues him with a vial of poisonous gas. 

In a moment of revelation brought on by the fight and his very recent involvement with Liesl, Korda vows to cover The Gap himself, even though it amounts to his entire fortune and then some, and also outlines plans to pay his workers a fair and honest wage, having previously pledged to use slave labour. The project is a virtuous one that benefits Phoenicia but ends up bankrupting Korda. He retires to a much simpler life running a small restaurant with Liesl as his main waiting staff, while he is the chef, bottle washer and manager stripped of all his previous luxuries. The two close the restaurant late at night and sit down to a game of cards as they have accepted a more modest life.

I left the movie theatre feeling a little ho-hum about 'The Phoenician Scheme'. The plot tends to meander just a tad to much for my liking which made it hard for me to concentrate too much on what was happening, and all the scenes involving a Who's Who of A-list acting talent felt rushed, and at the end of the day they all pretty much delivered the same outcome. That said, Wes Anderson has here once again delivered us a film of his singular quirkiness with vivid colours, larger than life characters, off-kilter action, top notch attention to detail, and at times laugh-out-loud moments. Threapleton, Cera and del Toro all shine in this film and carry off their zany roles with aplomb, whilst the other cast members who add colour and movement to the proceedings get just a few minutes of screen time and a handful of lines of dialogue and then they're gone, and alas never to be seen again. This film is not up there with his earlier 'The Grand Budapest Hotel', 'Isle of Dogs' or 'The French Dispatch', and is sure to please fans of the Director, but of me, well 'meh'!

'The Phoenician Scheme' warrants three claps of the Odeon Online clapperboard from a possible five claps.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-