20. Patricia Whitman (Anjelica Huston in “The Darjeeling Limited”)
The second, and in our mind superior, of Angelica Huston’s Anderson matriarchs, Patricia Whitman, haunts “The Darjeeling Limited” long before she turns up at the very end of the film: she’s the end point of the journey of her three children, bringing them to the “Black Narcissus”-style spiritual retreat. Almost unrecognizable in short-cropped grey hair, spiritually pretentious but also sincere, she ties the whole film together, embodying aspects of all three of her sons, and proving to be a classically slippery Anderson parent figure, disappearing into the night just when they think she’s back in their lives.
19. Captain Sharp (Bruce Willis in “Moonrise Kingdom”)
We’re so used to seeing a version of Bruce Willis on screen who’s phoning it in that it comes as a positive shock when he turns up and acts. And not just acts, acts the hell out of a movie, as in “Moonrise Kingdom,” where the action star gives one of the most memorable performances. Stuck behind thick glasses, and a little podgy in a way that we’re not used to seeing with him, he’s a thoroughly sweet, thoroughly nice guy battling a deep loneliness, particularly as he realizes that his lover (Frances McDormand) isn’t going to leave her husband for him. Willis does get to play the hero by the end, but it’s so much more hard-won coming from such a relative sadsack.
18. Dmitri (Adrien Brody in “The Grand Budapest Hotel”)
It’s a little depressing to see the sort of straight-to-video action movies that Adrien Brody’s been making these days, but his finest moments of late have been with Wes Anderson, even though the performances have been as different as you can imagine. First up, it’s his devious villain in “The Grand Budapest Hotel.” Pencil-mustached, with a hair-trigger temper and very shouty, it seems on the surface a broad and ridiculous role. But Brody, and his director, layer in something else: that as much as this cat-throwing madman could be a figure of fun, he’s also a fascist, a symbol for how dangerous someone like this can be when left unchecked.
17. Sam (Jared Gilman in “Moonrise Kingdom”)
One of the two troubled leads of “Moonrise Kingdom,” Sam is an orphan boy raging at a world that wants no part of him. And it’s not too difficult to blame the world: Sam (played by the terrific Jared Gilman) has as little time for them as they do for him, an introverted kid who wants to burn everything down, a sort of junior Clyde Barrow whose only light in his life is his Bonnie, Suzy. Abandoned by his fed-up foster parents, and understood only by a fellow misfit like his Scout Master, his grandest running-away-gesture to date ends up with a happy ending, as he escapes the clutches of Social Services, and gets a new father figure in the shape of Bruce Willis, no less.
16. Abe Henry (James Caan in “Bottle Rocket”)
For much of “Bottle Rocket,” Mr. Henry is like a mythical figure, and it’s not until the second half that the legendary crime mastermind — who has devised a landscaping business as a crime front — appears. A friendly con man, Mr. Henry uses his various warm charms to hoodwink friend and foe, though he always sticks up for the underdog as intoned in his spirited “the world needs dreamers” monologue. “Bottle Rocket,” in addition to its many other qualities, also provided Caan with a very welcome showcase in the middle of a kind of wilderness period for the actor.
15. Peter (Adrien Brody in “The Darjeeling Limited”)
You knew that Adrien Brody was going to fit nicely into Wes World when he could star alongside Jason Schwartzman and Owen Wilson, two actors who’d been with the director since day one, and outshine them both. The middle child of the Whitman family, he’s to some degree the most ‘normal’ of the three — less of a would-be lothario than his younger sibling, and less manipulative than his elder one. But as we discover that Peter’s left his heavily-pregnant wife at home, and is freaking out about fatherhood, Brody’s low-key hangdog charm becomes a perfect fit for the universe, and proved to be one of the actor’s most watchable performances ever.
14. Alistair Hennessey (Jeff Goldblum in “The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou”)
We may be out of step with the general sea-change(!) re-evaluation of ‘The Life Aquatic,’ but, though it looks great, we’ve never wholly got on board(!!). But even we can admit it has elements as good or better than anything Anderson’s done, and one of them, coming close even to the tremendously laconic, ambivalent Bill Murray title character, is Jeff Goldblum’s first appearance for the director as Zissou’s arch nemesis, Alistair. The man to whom all the things for which Zissou struggles so hard come naturally, even espresso machines and ex-wives, Hennessey is the exact mixture of smugness, suavity, and actual charm that’s guaranteed to infuriate the infinitely more shambolic Zissou.
13. Suzy (Kara Hayward in “Moonrise Kingdom”)
The other half of the central runaway pair in “Moonrise Kingdom,” and arguably the most dangerous, Suzy doesn’t have the excuse of dead parents to be angry at the world — she has a family, even if they ignore her most of the time. But angry she is, to the extent that you suspect she’d burn it all down if she could. Vacillating between head-in-a-book introversion and blind, near-psychotic fits of rage, she’s nevertheless found a tender soulmate in Sam, and the pair entered the annals of great lovers-on-the-run (and she became one of Anderson’s best-drawn female characters) as a result.
12. Mr Fox (George Clooney in “Fantastic Mr Fox”)
Suave, smooth, and a little bit hapless: if George Clooney was every going to play a Wes Anderson character, it had to be Mr. Fox. Reaching the midpoint of his Jack Foley from “Out Of Sight” and his Ulysses Everett McGill from “O Brother Where Art Thou,” Fox is a born schemer, a charismatic figure who’s the smartest man in the room, except for when he isn’t, a hyper-masculine dude who has to face life without his tail. As selfish and self-centered as the best of Anderson’s character, but with an unusually heroic streak as well, it’s a role tailor made for Clooney, and makes us hope that he and Wes might team up in the live-action world at some point soon.
11. Klaus Daimler (Willem Dafoe in “The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou”)
You don’t necessarily identify Willem Dafoe with comedy. You associate him with being Jesus, or being terrified, or having his dick bludgeoned by Charlotte Gainsbourg. But that’s why his performance in “The Life Aquatic” proved to be such a revelation. As Steve Zissou’s loyal right-hand-man Klaus (complete with a decidedly Werner Herzog-ish accent), Dafoe uproariously steals the movie: a thoroughly capable sailor who’s nevertheless a desperately needy child, who’d die for the man he sees as his dad, but desperately needs his approval too. Dafoe’s always been a great addition to Anderson’s film — his skeezy Rat in “Fantastic Mr. Fox,” his chilling killer in “The Grand Budapest Hotel” — but this is definitely their finest hour together.