Prepare to be royally entertained by Wes Anderson's wickedly irreverent farce The Royal Tenenbaums.

It's a wily comedy about a chronically dysfunctional family whose members are forced to re-examine their tortured relationships.

Royal Tenenbaum (Gene Hackman) and his wife Etheline (Anjelica Huston) have three children who proved to be exceptional.

Chas (Ben Stiller) was an economics protege who developed a strain of Dalmatian-spotted mice that made him a fortune.

Adopted sister Margot (Gwyneth Paltrow) wrote a popular play and brother Richie (Luke Wilson) was a teen tennis pro.

When Royal divorced his wife, his children failed to achieve their potential. Instead, they wallowed in a series of emotional traumas.

Two decades after walking out on his family, Royal discovers he is penniless, homeless and companionless, so he makes an appearance at the old home as do his adult children.

Royal announces he is dying, a cruel, false plot to get attention and money.

Chas is so paranoid after the accidental death of his wife, he only feels safe in his old bedroom, so he moves back in with his two distraught and confused young sons.

The now anorexic, sexually frustrated Margot abruptly leaves her much older husband, a renowned psychoanalyst played by Bill Murray.

Longtime friend and surrogate sibling Eli Cash (Owen Wilson) confesses he finally intends to act upon his long sublimated love for Margot, sending Richie into a tizzy as he, too, is in love with his adopted sister.

It may be unrequited and unspeakable love for Richie that has Eli so dependent on drugs.

Etheline is considering marrying the family's accountant (Danny Glover), but is distracted by Royal's protestations of renewed love.

How all these twisted relationships work out or fail to is the pure screwball joy of The Royal Tenenbaums.

Anderson, who wrote the screenplay with Owen Wilson, directs with deft and cheeky abandonment. He's not afraid to make absurd implications about his characters or let them react with politically incorrect gleefulness.

This is what makes The Royal Tenenbaums an uncharacteristic delight for a major Hollywood movie.

One expects such tenuous behaviour in more liberal foreign fare or independent films, but hardly from the likes of such marquee actors as Hackman, Paltrow, Huston and their co-stars.

Hackman has rarely been more uncharacteristic or better in his long, prestigious career. His performance is bound to net him an Oscar nomination and the rest of the cast deserves a nod for best-supporting performance.

Heck, even Alec Baldwin's droll narration deserves a mention as do the costumes, score and set designs. (More on: The Royal Tenebaums ).

(This film is rated R)

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