Michael Cera, Benicio Del Toro and Mia Threapleton in “The Phoenician Scheme.”
Director Wes Anderson’s The Phoenician Scheme — starring Benicio Del Toro, Tom Hanks, Scarlett Johansson and Bryan Cranston — is now in theaters. How are critics receiving the film?
Rated PG-13, The Phoenician Scheme opened in limited release on May 31 before expanding to a wide release on Friday. Also starring Michael Cera, Riz Ahmed, Mathieu Amalric, Richard Ayoade, Jeffrey Wright, Benedict Cumberbatch, Rupert Friend and Hope Davis, The Phoenician Scheme held its world premiere at the 2025 Cannes Film Festival in May.
The logline for The Phoenician Scheme reads, “The story of a family and a family business.” Featuring a screenplay by Anderson and Roman Coppola, the offbeat comedy follows the story of European businessman Zsa-zsa Korda (Del Toro) and his only daughter and sole heir, a nun named Sister Liesel (Threapleton), who are each being targeted by assassins and schemers.
As of Friday, Rotten Tomatoes critics have collectively given The Phoenician Scheme a 78% “fresh” rating based on 185 reviews.
The RT Critics Consensus for the film reads, “A caper made with all the intricacy of a Rube Goldberg machine, The Phoenician Scheme doesn’t deviate from Wes Anderson’s increasingly ornate style but delivers the formula with mannered delicacy.”
Audiences on RT gave the film a 73% “fresh” score on the critic aggregation site’s Popcornmeter based on 100-plus verified user ratings.
What Are Individual Critics Saying About ‘The Phoenician Scheme’?
Kyle Smith of The Wall Street Journal is among the top critics on RT who gives The Phoenician Scheme a “fresh” rating on RT, writing, “Given that The Phoenician Scheme essentially concludes by saying, as some of the director’s other movies did, ‘Forgive your ridiculous dad for his failings,’ its major attraction is the whimsy with which it is decorated, or suffused, or infested.”
Also giving The Phoenician Scheme a “fresh” take on RT is Ann Hornaday of the Washington Post, who writes, “At its fleeting best — in its meditation on the transactional and the transcendent — this one feels like it’s reaching for something more than surface charm.”
In addition, Justin Chang of The New Yorker gives the film a “fresh” rating on RT, albeit with some minor reservations, writing, “The result is more digestible, though also less moving, than Anderson’s recent Asteroid City, but it does have a stealth emotional weapon in [Mia] Threapleton’s Liesl, who exudes the intelligence and self-possession of a young Anna Karina.”
Coleman Spilde of Salon is among the top critics on RT who gives The Phoenician Scheme a “rotten” rating, writing in his summary, “The resulting product is just that: a product, with all of the matte pastel appeal of Anderson’s oeuvre, yet little of its memorable charm.”
Dana Stevens of Slate also gives The Phoenician Scheme a “rotten” rating on RT, writing, “For all its exquisite boxes-within-boxes compositions and cleverly designed sets, this whole movie unfolded for me as if behind a thick pane of emotion-proof glass.”
Nicholas Barber of the BBC wasn’t impressed by the film, either, writing in his “rotten” take on RT, “Some directors boast that they make the films that they want to see, and they don’t care about pleasing anyone else. In the case of The Phoenician Scheme, it feels as if Anderson and his team were enjoying it more than audiences ever will.”
The Phoenician Scheme is now playing in theaters in wide release.
Source: https://www.forbes.com/sites/timlammers/2025/06/06/the-phoenician-scheme-reviews-do-critics-buy-into-wes-andersons-comedy/