The Royal Tenenbaums

Shh.

Royal Tenenbaum bought the house on Archer Avenue

in the winter of his 35th year.

Over the next decade

he and his wife had three children

and then they separated.

Are you getting divorced?

At the moment, no... but... it doesn't look good.

Do you still love us?

Of course I do.

Do you still love Mom?

Yes, very much, but your mother's asked me to leave

and I must respect her position on the matter.

Is it our fault?

No.

Obviously, we made certain sacrifices

as a result of having children, but, uh...

no, Lord, no.

Then why'd she ask you to leave?

I don't really know anymore.

Maybe, uh, I wasn't as true to her as I could've been.

Well, she said...

Let's just drop it

shall we, uh, Chassie?

They were never legally divorced.

Thank you, Pagoda.

Etheline Tenenbaum kept the house

and raised the children

and their education was her highest priority.

Yes, I'll hold, please.

Thank you.

I need $187.

Write yourself a check.

Bene. Si.

Grazie mille.

She wrote a book on the subject.

Chas, Chas! Richie!

Uh, the gentleman in the blue cardigan, please.

Thank you. I have a two-part question.

Go ahead.

Chas Tenenbaum had, since elementary school

taken most of his meals in his room

standing up at his desk with a cup of coffee

to save time.

In the sixth grade, he went into business

breeding Dalmatian mice

which he sold to a pet shop in Little Tokyo.

He started buying real estate in his early teens

and seemed to have an almost preternatural understanding

of international finance.

He negotiated the purchase of his father's summer house

on Eagle's Island.

Hold it, Chassie.

Hold it right there.

What are you doing? You're on my team.

There are no teams.

The BB was still lodged between two knuckles

in Chas's left hand.

Margot Tenenbaum was adopted at age two.

Her father had always noted this when introducing her.

This is my adopted daughter Margot Tenenbaum.

She was a playwright, and won a Braverman Grant of $50,000

in the ninth grade.

She and her brother Richie ran away from home one winter

and camped out

in the African wing of the public archives.

Hi, Eli.

You said I could run away, too.

No, I didn't, and don't tell anyone you saw us.

They shared a sleeping bag

and survived on crackers and root beer.

Four years later

Margot disappeared alone for two weeks

and came back with half a finger missing.

Richie Tenenbaum had been a champion tennis player

since the third grade.

Do you copy, Anonymous?

He turned pro at 17

and won the U.S. Nationals three years in a row.

He kept a studio in the corner of the ballroom

but had failed to develop as a painter.

Up... up...

right...

perfect.

Pagoda?

On weekends

Royal took him on outings around the city.

Put it out there.

These invitations

were never extended to anyone else.

Richie's best friend, Eli Cash, lived with his aunt

in the building across the street.

He was a regular fixture at family gatherings

holidays, mornings before school, and most afternoons.

The three Tenenbaum children performed Margot's first play

on the night of her 11th birthday.

They had agreed

to invite their father to the party.

What'd you think, Dad?

Mmm... didn't seem believable to me.

Why are you wearing pajamas?

Do you live here?

He has permission to sleep over.

Well, did you at least think

the characters were well-developed?

What characters?

This is a bunch of little kids, uh

dressed up in animal costumes.

Good night, everyone.

Well, sweetie...

don't be mad at me.

That's just one man's opinion.

He had not been invited to any of their parties since.

In fact, virtually all memory

of the brilliance of the young Tenenbaums

had been erased

by two decades of betrayal, failure, and disaster.

Go, Mordecai.

I've been instructed

to refuse any further charges on your room account

and to direct you, in writing

to please vacate the premises by the end of the month.

What about Sing-Sang?

I owe her $100.

Royal had lived in the Lindbergh Palace Hotel

for 22 years.

Can you pay her in cash?

Uh-uh.

He was a prominent litigator until the mid '80s

when he was disbarred and briefly imprisoned.

No one in his family had spoken to him in three years.

Read it back to me so far, Pietro.

New paragraph.

Richie had retired

from professional tennis at 26.

His last match had been widely discussed in the media.

"Your friend Richie." End of letter.

For the past year, he had been traveling alone

on an ocean liner called the Cote d'lvoire

and had seen both poles, five oceans

the Amazon and the Nile.

"The crickets and the rust beetles scuttled

"among the nettles of the sage thicket.

"'Vamanos, amigos,' he whispered

"and threw the busted-leather flint craw

"over the loose weave of the saddle cock

and they rode on in the friscalating dusk light."

Eli was an assistant professor

of English literature at Brooks College.

The recent publication of his second novel...

...had earned him a sudden, unexpected literary celebrity.

Well, everyone knows Custer died at Little Bighorn.

What this book presupposes is... maybe he didn't.

Let me ask you something.

Why would a review make the point of saying

someone's not a genius?

You think I'm especially not a genius?

I know w...

You didn't even have to think about it, did you?

Well, I just don't use that word lightly.

I have to go, Eli.

Margot?

Uh-huh.

May I come in, please?

How are you, my darling?

Margo was married to the writer and neurologist

Raleigh St. Clair.

I'm fine, thank you.

You need to eat something.

May I make you dinner?

No, thank you.

She was known for her extreme secrecy.

For example, none of the Tenenbaums knew

she was a smoker, which she had been since the age of 12.

Nor were they aware of her first marriage

and divorce to a recording artist in Jamaica.

She kept a private studio in Mockingbird Heights

under the name "Helen Scott."

She had not completed a play in seven years.

17 October, third examination of Dudley Heinsbergen.

All right, Dudley

make yours like mine.

Raleigh's next book was on the subject

of a condition he called "Heinsbergen Syndrome."

Where's that red one

going to go?

Done.

Good.

Very good.

My goodness.

How interesting. How bizarre.

Dudley suffers from a rare disorder

combining symptoms of amnesia, dyslexia

and color blindness.

He has a highly acute sense of hearing.

There is also evidence of...

I'm not color blind, am I?

I'm afraid you are.

Ari, fire alarm! Let's go!

Out you go!