In Wes Anderson’s Latest, He Delivers a Cinematic Newspaper

Bill Murray in "The French Dispatch"
Photo Credit: RottenTomatoes.com

Throughout director Wes Anderson’s career, he has brought a cheerful, whimsical style to his films that have given audiences one of the most distinctive visions in twentieth-first-century movies.  Even if you’ve arrived to the point where you might be turned off by the quirkiness of his films, you can’t deny that his stories have an overflowing of originality that’s difficult to ignore.

However, Anderson’s latest comedy, “The French Dispatch,” falls prey to him indulging too much in some storytelling elements, resulting in a film that's ambitious to a fault.

The story follows the titular newspaper as its staff works to assemble the latest issue out of its office in the fictional town of Ennui, France.  Within this frame narrative, we see three of the news stories play out: the first tells the tale of an imprisoned painter (Benicio del Toro); the second follows a reporter (Frances McDormand) who’s writing about a student revolutionary (Timothée Chalemet); and the third chronicles a food journalist (Jeffrey Wright) who assists the Ennui police commissioner (Mathieu Amalric) in rescuing his kidnapped son (Winston Ait Hellal).

The cast consists of many established actors and actresses.  While the leads in the stories (del Toro, Léa Seydoux, Adrian Brody, and Tilda Swinton in the first story; Chalamet, McDormand, and Lyna Khoudri in the second; Wright, Amalric, and Liev Schreiber in the third; and Bill Murray and Owen Wilson in the frame story) all have a good amount of screen time, you have cast members like Saoirse Ronan, Christoph Waltz, Edward Norton, Bob Balaban, Willem Dafoe, and Elizabeth Moss who all have very little material with which to work.  While it’s understandable that some might have more to do than others, the spectrum of screen time consists of two extremes: having a lot to do, and having barely anything to do.  This is one of the reasons why each story should have been its own movie, so that we can have more time with these characters.  Even the ones that have the most screen time feel like they’re shortchanged because of the brief nature of the three stories.  Anderson gathers his biggest ensemble ever, but many of those in attendance maybe get two minutes of screen time at the most, and for some of those cast members, that’s a generous estimate.

Anderson’s screenplay has a boldness to how it unfolds, with each act being a story within a different section of the newspaper, be it arts, politics, or cuisine.  However, we’re not provided with enough time with either one to make them impactful.  As mentioned before, any of the three stories within this film could have been a feature-length movie, given the plot material and how many characters there are.  Anderson tries to cram so much into each of these narratives and has the stories move at a pace that’s much too quick to appreciate everything that he includes, and this doesn’t provide the characters with a chance to evolve.  Even the frame story of the “French Dispatch” staff could have been a full-length movie.  There’s enough talent in each portion of this film, but to have them all fight for our attention in a 108-minute movie doesn’t quite work.

The film is also hindered by too much narration.  By overusing this technique, we’re not given the chance to hear the stories from the characters themselves; and, just like the limited time spent with them, this is another aspect that makes it difficult to connect with them.

Despite the issues with the story and characterizations, this film isn’t without a couple of technical accomplishments.  Robert Yeoman, who has done the cinematography for all of Anderson’s live-action films, provides the camerawork for this movie.  While the frame story is in color, Yeoman uses beautiful black-and-white cinematography to evoke the look of black-and-white in newspapers from back then.  But, in an additional creative touch, he employs color in shots where the characters’ senses come into play, such as when someone gazes upon a painting.  And, as is customary with Anderson’s movies, you have to marvel at the attention to detail that he bestows upon the environments that he presents us, thanks to the theatrical and lavish production design by Adam Stockhausen, who’s another past collaborator of Anderson’s.

While “The French Dispatch” may unfold like a newspaper, you’ll end up wishing you could have the leisurely experience of reading each story, instead of feeling like you’re skimming through the pages.

Grade: C