The Royal Tenenbaums is a hard film to pin down. It is very definitely a comedy, but is short on gags. It is a family melodrama, but the family concerned is like none you have ever seen before.

Each of the three Tenenbaum children were child geniuses who have failed as adults. In the opening scenes, we see their previous successes and their gravtiation back towards the family home.

Royal Tenenbaum (the titular head of the family) played with gusto by Gene Hackman returns to the family house for the first time in decades to tell his estranged family he has 6 weeks to live.

The ensuing events are rarely predictable, often extremely funny and surprisingly touching.

Although the characters are curiosities and grotesques, their neuroses are those that we all share, writ large, and they are brilliantly realised by an ensemble cast including Hackman, Anjelica Huston, Ben Stiller, Bill Murray, Danny Glover, Gwyneth Paltrow and Owen Wilson.

It is hard to pick between them for all are superb, although the old hands, Hackman, Glover and Huston are probably the pick of the bunch.

The film was co-written by Owen Wilson and it was recently pointed out to me that actors often deliver superb dialogue-focused characters in their scripts. That is certainly true here. The interplay is beautifully observed and utterly believable.

In my opinion, this is the best movie in a year and I would heartily recommend anyone to go and see it, an antidote to the modern Hollywood blockbuster.