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So how does this film stand up against Bottle Rocket, Rushmore, The Royal Tennenbaums, and The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou.In all honesty, and this might be hard to believe, I think this is Anderson's best movie to date (I should say the best Anderson movie I've seen since I still have yet to see Fantastic Mr. Here, Anderson's characters have quirks, but the quirks are defined by the characters relationships and who they are rather than the other way around. Often copied but never duplicated (the closest being Anderson protege Noah Baumbach's The Squid and the Whale), one of the things that makes Anderson's movies so great is his ability to walk that fine line between depressing and funny, and pathetic and sweet. So Jack (Jason Schwartzman, also acting as co-writer with director Wes Anderson) leaves behind the hotel room he's been living at for months in France and his neurotic girlfriend (Natalie Portman), and Peter (Adrien Brody) leaves his pregnant wife behind for the spiritual "retreat." Traveling around India on The Darjeeling Limited the three brothers try to find themselves, each other, and possibly their long lost mother (Anjelica Huston).Wes Anderson is the king of quirky indie style comedies.
Schwartzman, as the younger brother, is the impressionable one but just kind of wants to go with the flow of what the other brothers are doing. Unfortunately, as we found out later, his character may have been a little closer to his reality then we'd like to have thought.If I had one problem with this movie it's that I don't get the use of Bill Murray as The Businessman with just one line. After their father dies, Francis (Owen Wilson) organizes a trip for them to reconnect on a spiritual tour of India. Fox). Throughout the movie we see Wilson's character with bandages covering a large portion of his head and face, it seems like it's just a quirk the writers threw in to make the character seem more interesting, but when you find out the truth, it makes complete since in the scheme of who the character is.As with any Anderson movie the acting is impeccable, and adding Oscar winner Adrien Brody to his film making "family" was an inspired choice.
Brody plays the middle brother who sometimes feels like he's fading stuck between the other two and tries to break out of the mold by taking things important to others to find an identity and at times rebels against his older brother. Writing satirical stories about dysfunctional relationships, neurotic individuals, and upperclass families unhinged from reality, Anderson has definitely carved himself a unique niche with the film world. By shooting this film in India, he gives this film a unique flavor from the rest of his films, while still seeming familiar at the same time. Still, because of Murray's involvement I kept thinking there was going to be something more to the movie that never came about.
The Whitman brothers haven't seen each other in years. Each of the actors playing the brother is completely believable in his spot in the pecking order. Wilson as the oldest, and as the one who practically raised the other brothers, is authoritative to a fault and tries to hide a more emotional interior from his "frailer" brothers. Each actor exemplifies these roles to a tee, but the real standout is Wilson. The smaller sets, and closer proximity of the characters, as well as the smaller cast also make this movie feel more personal and allowing you to get closer to the characters. Due to this distraction from the rest of the movie, I find the role actually to be somewhat detrimental to the movie as it really serves no purpose in the grand scheme of things.I highly recommend that you give this movie a try, especially if you like Anderson's previously efforts or other independent film. Before the indie movie scene was "cool", Anderson was making movies like Bottle Rocket and Rushmore.
As with all of his movies this is kind of a love it or hate it affair, but there's a lot to like about this movie from the look at a different culture, to the acting, to an interesting and engrossing story. Of course, that familiarity can be attributed to Anderson's use of many of the same actors as he's used in his other films (of the American actors in the film, only Adrien Brody hasn't appeared in a Wes Anderson film), not to mention the familiar subject material from his previous movies. One thing that I've noticed in a lot of indie films these days is giving characters quirks that don't really define the characters but are there just to set the movie apart from the mainstream. I guess had it been a no name actor I probably wouldn't have even thought about this point, and Anderson might have chosen to put Murray into this role because Murray's become something of a talisman to him since he has appeared in all of Anderson's movies except for Bottle Rocket. Also if you check out the DVD make sure you watch the short film before The Darjeeling Limited called Hotel Chevalier.4.5/5
Marketed as a comedy, "The Darjeeling Limited" tackles heavy themes though Anderson's askewed humor is also present. I haven't seen "The Fantastic Mr. Topics like life, death, and the fragility of family bonds are present here. Fox" but to my mind Wes Anderson hasn't missed a beat yet. As a whole Anderson's collective works meld into an interesting observation on the quirks of men. There's a certain poignancy on display here. This is a demanding film that I think would reward the most ambitious viewers.
The Darjeeling Limited has had its share of haven't-even-seen-it-yet detractors who also claim that Anderson has lost whatever it is he used to have. Perhaps I'm something of an apologist, because despite knowing all of the above, I still continually find myself sucked into the world he paints, I connect with his characters and I even find myself searching iTunes for the soundtrack. The last Wes Anderson movie, The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, was the one that began to elicit a few cries of lost magic from former die hard fans turned burnt out turncoats. He has shown himself by this point to be essentially a one-trick pony. So while watching an Anderson film is an experience of familiarity with his previous works, to me it never comes off as redundant. Others have suggested that his work continues to show its seams to the audience, that it is a cinematic mad-lib of artistic cinematography combined with highly strategic music. But the thing is, it works.
The Darjeeling Limited, despite it's road movie backdrop, is likely the smallest, most claustrophobic of Anderson's movies to date. It was certainly the broadest reaching of his works, an episodic plot featuring turns including pirate attacks and what ultimately proved to be an untrue father-son reconciliation. And so it is safe to say Darjeeling Limited had me as soon as I was introduced to all three of its main characters, the Whitman brothers, played by Owen Wilson, Adrian Brody, and Jason Schwartzman, three rich American brothers riding a train across India. I agree with pretty much everything about that line of thought towards the Anderson movies. With the exception of his debut Bottle Rocket, his movies have dealt exclusively with the longings and emptiness of the lives of over-privileged white people, typically selfish yet endearing in a quirky way, with a soundtrack that was clearly planned before dialogue was even written, and apparently an appearance by Bill Murray and Angelica Houston. It maintains such a close portrait of its three main protagonists, who are so rarely separated from one another that even when the boys are kicked off the train for fighting, or the worlds apart the characters seem from each other at times, the movie never really feels like it leaves the close confines of their shared cabin. It feels very much like looking at a series of paintings by the same artist during the same period of his life, looking deeply for a level of truth in slivers of the same image, with only a few slight variations, that when pondered more seem to make an immense difference.
Even if you don't have any brothers you'll enjoy this flick. It's hilarious. Wrought with subtle humor and a clever plot that keeps you guessing the entire time.A must see for any guy over 20 years of age.
India was the star of this movie, at least for me -- the colors and vibrancy were amazing. Their behavior is so bad that they are soon asked to leave the train, and then they meet up with some locals.A couple of things bothered me, however. The controlling nature of the oldest brother is broadly exaggerated (he takes the passports to make sure no-one loses them or leaves without his permission; in the dining car, without asking, he orders for each of them). The father, we learn, is deceased, and the mother has vanished from their lives. That gets me to the part I liked least: how easy it was to dislike just about every character in this movie. The family is dysfunctional and the brothers aren't doing so well as individuals, either. It showed a side of India that are less often seen, particularly since much of the movie involves a long train trip, and most of the rest, an unplanned excursion in the desert (the area around Jaipur).The story line involves three brothers, apparently wealthy, who don't get along. The first was the lack of subtlety -- all traits and messages were writ large, lest you miss them.
The oldest, who tends to be very controlling, put together this trip as a time for spiritual renewal and healing for the family. They are to meet on a train, the Darjeeling Limited, to go visit their mother, who has moved to India. The symbolism of the final scene (POSSIBLE SPOILER FOLLOWS..they catch the train but leave all their expensive baggage behind them) is ridiculously obvious -- what we're supposed to see as the personal growth that these horrible brothers experienced. For me, I need to like at least some of the characters.Still, I think this is a movie worth watching, if for no other reason than the India setting.
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