Wes Anderson and Owen Wilson have come close to running out of ideas. Perhaps its that Luke Wilson and Owen Wilson keep showing up in the movies as do other recurring characters. Maybe Wes want's to emmulate the early career of Atom Egoyan with a company of players that just show up in every movie. I don't know. This movie's not bad, but it seems very recycled if you have seen anything by Hal Hartley or even Anderson's other two movies - Bottle Rocket and Rushmore. What seems fresh in Rushmore gets tired here.

This is a movie driven by characters. Sometimes they are funny. Sometimes they are not. The filming devices hope to hold a story together where the plot has run thin. The vignette scenes are not as funny as the Max Fischer players and Owen's current Cash character is nowhere as good as Bottlerocket's Dignan.

I was hoping Tenenbaums would blow everything away. I was hoping it would save me from the current dullness of my recent movies. It's funny and evolutionary, not revolutionary. I found myself only grinning at the subtle bits and walked away with no real quotable material.