[DVD REVIEW (R1)] THE DARJEELING LIMITED

This is SO late! I’m so sorry! This was meant to be published back in the first week of April to coincide with it’s Region 2 release and, although I wrote the review, it got lost amongst a slew of other bulk publishing I did at the time! Anyway, no more excuses on with the review:

Let’s do the inevitable Gazz created opening tangent in shorthand form eh? Yeah, why not? Wes Anderson - officially one of the most interesting of directors working in the industry presently. His films? Bottle Rocket is the very definition of a true cult gem! Rushmore is ever inch the masterpiece, more so for smashing the “difficult second movie” tag. The Royal Tenenbaums is a modern classic in every sense too, for me anyway, and the same goes for the much-maligned Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou. [I had one friend who watched that particular film and said "Nothing happens!" and I was speechless for a couple of minutes before stuttering "What? EVERYTHING happens!"]

Which brings us to Anderson’s next piece, The Darjeeling Limited, a film kind of kicked around by some critics, ignored by others and then pretty much passed over by the movie going public. This review is a place where discussions of Owen Wilson’s private problems allegedly during and after shooting will go unmentioned here! For me, The Darjeeling Limited is by no means the “runt of the litter” in Anderson’s filmography. Nor is it an example of the writer/director finally hitting a slump.

Most certainly not!

A year after the accidental death of their father, three brothers meet for a train trip across India. Francis (Owen Wilson), the eldest, has organised it. The other two drag themselves along through a mild curiosity at just why Francis wants them to do this. Within minutes of the journey beginning, they argue - which sets the tone for a journey riddled with sulking, resentment and more fights.

Soon, each brother is looking for any distraction they can to take them away from actual time in each other’s company. The youngest, Jack (Jason Schwartzman), estranged from his girlfriend, is attracted to one of the train’s attendants. Peter (Adrian Brody) has left his pregnant wife at home, and he buys a venomous snake to compensate. After a few days, Francis discloses their surprising and disconcerting destination… to meet the mother that walked out on them years earlier.

There’s no doubt about it, The Darjeeling Limited is very much the stronger film if it is seen with Anderson’s short “introduction” movie, Hotel Chevalier, before it. Luckily every DVD release seems to come with the option to watch the whole experience of it as one whole. I’m not championing the experience just because it has nudey shots of Natalie Portman, more so because it enhances the actual movie experience for having seen it. The character of Jack is understood better, for one.

I liked The Darjeeling Limited alot. Anderson’s settled into his own style of writing and directing now and you’re either a fan of it or you’re not. It’s that simple. In the same way you don’t go to a Michael Bay movie and criticise the lack of characterisation or strong script, you don’t come to a Wes Anderson movie and slate the quirkiness or the left of centre approach to proceedings.

Admittedly, the plot is a “wander” through India and is more a series of set pieces stapled together then it is a cohesive whole, but the plot after all is just a spring board to spend time in the company of Wilson, Brody and Schwartzman’s characters and view their behaviour in given situations. The work is so subtle within the script, direction and the acting that it takes one very, very beautifully underplayed moment in which the brothers attempt to rescue some children from a river and Peter (Adrian Brody) almost inaudibly says something like “I didn’t save mine!” that you realise just what the film is trying to say and just what exists between the characters as brothers.

The performances are also a real surprise; Angelica Huston is as majestic as you’ll now come to expect from her in a Wes Anderson movie, Bill Murray’s cameo is wryly amusing and you’d expect Oscar winner Adrian Brody to be the front and centre talent but he’s not. In fact, as good as he is, he’s the weakest element in comparison to Wilson and Schwartzman who shine brightly.

I really don’t know what the critics had to complain about with this flick. It’s beautifully realised on a visual level, it’s performed with great gusto and it is enormously quotable in a way not heard since Rushmore (”You don’t love me!” “Yes I do!” “I love you too, but I’m gonna mace you in the face!”). Okay, so for those who had issues with Anderson’s past films having ‘none-endings’ then they’re going to face the same struggles here but this is a real under-rated peach of a flick.

I’ve adored everything Wes Anderson has put out there so far, this movie included. I think accusations that he is “our generation’s Woody Allen” are a little off-kilter. I’d say he’s more of a Pedro Almodovar type. Allen makes movies every year whether his idea is fully developed or not because he has to feel like he is “working”. Almodovar is more of the type who has an uncompromising, passionate vision of a story that is not necessarily within the framework of the mainstream but is committed to realising it all the same. In that regard, Wes Anderson is every inch his American equivilent.

Posted on Thursday, May 8th, 2008 at 1:16 pm under DVD Reviews (R2) by Gazz.
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