Wes Anderson returns with a muted Scheme

WES ANDERSON, WHO SPECIALIZES in designing fancifully invented societies, probably doesn’t strike anyone as an angry person.

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But his espionage comedy The Phoenician Scheme, which played in competition at Cannes before opening in theaters May 30, shows glimmers of something that might be called anger, or at least frustration, over the greed and immorality of people who have too much and only want more. The picture is flat and schematic—even more than usual for Anderson, who favors static camerawork and sets that resemble meticulously decorated dollhouses; he also has a penchant for dividing his movies into discrete chapters with deadpan title cards. All those features figure here, but the movie is more muted than usual for Anderson, both in its color tones and story. There’s something somber about it; it hints at exhaustion on Anderson’s part, not of the movies, but of the world.