| THE DARJEELING LIMITED |
 2007 - USA Director: Wes Anderson
- Reviewed by Vickie
The film begins with brothers Francis (Owen Wilson), Peter (Adrien Brody) and Jack (Jason Schwartzman) meeting up overseas, where Francis has organized a journey of enlightenment—complete with laminated itinerary—as a way of bringing their family back together. They’ll travel by train (the titular line) to some of the great spiritual meccas of the east and, if all goes well, may just track down their mother (Anjelica Huston) in the process. But what begins as a noble, introspective idea quickly becomes one bizarre event after another: a rendezvous with a train attendant, stolen shoes, a river rescue that ends in tragedy, a funeral and plenty of fraternal bickering, to name just a few. But, aside from being a series of quirky vignettes, the film feels like it’s lacking in structure and is a little all over the map. The brothers’ backstories are virtually non-existent, so their estrangement is never really clear. The script was co-written by Anderson, Schwartzman and Roman Coppola, who collaborated long-distance after the idea for the screenplay materialized organically through conversations. It kind of shows, though... there’s a certain patchwork quality to the action that feels like it’s the result of a bunch of puzzle pieces being put together, but not necessarily in the correct way or from the same puzzle. Yes, the little vignettes are interesting, but they don’t necessarily serve the story’s big picture. I should also note that, before the film, we were treated to an accompanying short film called Hotel Chevalier (7/8), which was also directed by Anderson and provides the backstory for Schwartzman’s character. Jack is holed up in a Paris hotel room and is reunited with his girlfriend (Natalie Portman) for a revealing conversation and, one assumes, make-up sex. The short film is terrific, and I loved it. We were advised that this short won’t run with the film when it’s released theatrically and that audiences won’t need to see it in order to understand Darjeeling, but I disagree. I think it’s helps tremendously and I wish there had been two other shorts outlining where Francis and Peter came from. (As an aside: the short film also helps explain why Natalie Portman shows up in exactly one dialogue-free shot towards Darjeeling’s end. Without the short, audiences are going to see her and think, “WTF? Was that Natalie Portman?!”) I get the concept of a comedy about a misguided quest for enlightenment and the notion of finding common ground when faced with extreme circumstances, but I didn’t feel my journey as a moviegoer was complete with Darjeeling. It left me wanting more, not in the good way, and made me long for a return visit to the Hotel Chevalier instead. DVD NOTESThe biggest treat on the DVD release of The Darjeeling Limited is the inclusion of the short film "Hotel Chevalier" (mentioned above), which, unless you were lucky enough to catch the short film at a festival, you probably didn't get the chance to see it. Otherwise, there are a handful of deleted scenes, as well as trailers. |
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Director Wes Anderson turns in a trademark Wes Anderson movie with this
story of three estranged brothers embarking on a “spiritual quest”
through India—it’s quirky to the extreme but occasionally those
quirks come at the expense of storytelling.
