Auteur Wes Anderson keeps finding ways to surprise audiences with The Phoenician Scheme

Courtesy of TPS Productions/Focus Features © 2025 All Rights Reserved

At this point in his career, it’s easy to think you know what you’ll get from a Wes Anderson picture. The grand cinematography. Opulent costumes. Quotable dialogue. A cavalcade of award-winning actors. And yet, his last few efforts have seen him playing with the likes of anthologies (The French Dispatch), a series of shorts on Netflix adapting Roald Dahl stories, and even getting a bit meta (Asteroid City). The Phoenician Scheme continues this trend with a soul-searching tale of a wealthy man who starts to question his legacy while chasing (even more) untold riches.

Oh, and it features a person getting blown in half in the first five minutes, just in case the introspection doesn’t hook you.

Set in 1950, the film follows the incredible life of Zsa-zsa Korda (Benicio Del Toro). He’s a ruthless businessman whose claim to fame isn’t merely being one of the wealthiest men in Europe, but also the number of assassination attempts he’s survived. His latest brush with death leads him to summon his estranged daughter, Liesl (Mia Threapleton), a nun about to take her vows. He plans to name her as his sole heir and asks her to accompany him on a business trip involving a series of interconnected businesses in the distant (fictional) land of Phoenicia.

The Phoenician Scheme contains many familiar Anderson hallmarks—including complex plot developments and over-the-top set pieces delivered with dry humor. A boardroom of American tycoons plot Korda’s downfall. A crate of grenades is doled out like rare chocolates. There’s a basketball game played in a tunnel and multiple plane crashes. However, the director’s familiar beats are a little reigned in here. The typical kitschy pop soundtrack is replaced by classical music and a score by Alexandre Desplat. His trademark quirk, color palette and dialogue remain but don’t border on twee overload.

Many of Anderson’s films center on the individual journeys of his vast cast, but that’s not the case this time. Here, the focus is solely on Korda’s desire to complete his business deals, and attempts to repair his relationship with Liesl. Everyone else, from Tom Hanks, Riz Ahmed, and Benedict Cumberbatch (replete with wild eyebrows and beard) to Hope Davis, Scarlett Johansson, and Jeffrey Wright, play their parts and disappear. Well, save for Korda’s new executive assistant Bjorn (Michael Cera), who steals every scene.

That uncharacteristic paring back gives Del Toro and Threapleton room to breathe. Del Toro gives a career-best performance as Korda, shifting from manic to cutthroat to remorseful over the course of the film. The same goes for Threapleton, who has the more difficult task of threading complex emotions through a monotone core.

Another surprise is how overtly religious The Phoenician Scheme is. Anderson has dabbled in religion and spiritual and philosophical themes before. But here, he dives in further. Korda experiences “visions” each time he almost shuffles off this mortal coil. In these he’s accompanied by a biblical troupe (that’s how the credits list them) comprised of, among others, Willem Dafoe, F. Murray Abraham, and Bill Murray, who all judge him for various transgressions in life. Imagine The Seventh Seal meets Defending Your Life and you’re there.

In addition to those sequences, the story is peppered with discussions on the sincerity of belief, death, acts of faith, and subconscious penance. Even the simple and sweet ending has a parable-esque quality to it.

Given the level of introspection on display, it’s hard not to sense something personal within the film. Anderson has openly mentioned Korda is partially based on his father-in-law, Fouad Michael Malouf, and the film’s father/daughter relationship is reflected in his wife’s relationship with her dad, as well as possibly his own daughter. Maybe that’s responsible for the tightness with which he conducts the film, disallowing for many tangents.

It’s impressive, three decades into his career, that Anderson finds ways to make each film more expansive while using a similar palette. You can tell a movie is his just by looking at it. The real magic, though, is seeing how he brings a new world to life each time. In the case of The Phoenician Scheme, the journey itself is just as important as the destination.

Courtesy of TPS Productions/Focus Features © 2025 All Rights Reserved