“The Darjeeling Limited”
Director Wes Anderson (Rushmore, The Royal Tennenbaums, The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou) makes films that are unique. He creates a world that feels along the same thread from film to film, a beautifully absurd world-a damaged, ironic, funny, and somehow almost apathetic world. There is something about the faces of his characters looking at us in those squared up, wide lens shots he adores. There is nothing realistic about his films except for the core issues that they deal with-which is almost always wounded families. Around these core ideas he spins scenes of absurd dry comedy along with astute detail driven observations. Did I mention the photography of striking beauty and originality and the set pieces of sheer fantastical genius?
The Darjeeling Limited is no different. Mr. Anderson’s latest deals with three brothers who haven’t seen one another in a year-since their father’s funeral. Now they meet on a train in India-the Darjeeling Limited-at the behest of Francis (Owen Wilson) the eldest, who has called this meeting as a spiritual quest for the three to reunite. A spiritual quest with daily laminated itineraries, slipped under the door each night by his assistant Brendan.
The other two brothers are Jack (Jason Schwartzmann) and Peter (Adrian Brody). Schwartzmann has appeared in numerous Wes Anderson films, and here, along with Roman Coppola (the son of Francis Ford, yes) co-wrote the screenplay with Anderson. Brody is a first time Anderson player, and he fits in like a charm. The faces of the two latter brothers are perfectly matched for this world of uncertain awkwardness that Anderson creates. Francis, on the other hand, is heavily bandaged throughout the film from a motorcycle accident. As the film proceeds we learn about the brothers’ wounds-physical emotional. It is set against the backdrop of their interaction with a strange and beautiful culture, soberly observed by Mr. Anderson’s wide lens.
In some ways, Wes Anderson makes adult fairytales’ for the independent film crowd. They are that crossed with a heavy dose of JD Salinger-these rich old east coast families that feel oddly from the past. By now, his filmic language is so familiar, like notes on an instrument, and it is joy to watch him solo with them. A Wes Anderson film is in the production design- that much is certain, and India and the train couldn’t have been any more beautiful than here. A Wes Anderson film is in the trinkets and the details-the sun glasses that Peter wears, the candle pots his wife makes, the bandages on Francis’ head, the luggage they all carry (absurdly carrying massive amounts of luggage on a train in India), Jack’s moustache, the train, the landscape, and Bill Murray (no explanation needed). And the dialogue, which is so refreshing, so satisfying and so slowly layered that it has nothing to do with reality, but everything to do with the core of the characters.
Almost no detail is unnecessary in a Wes Anderson films, they are prisms to the souls of his characters, no matter how absurd a place that may lead us. One also has to appreciate Wes Anderson as a student of film. I cannot help but think he is paying homage to classic movie history with his constant motif of the characters chasing the train pulling out of the station. And this is staged in fantastic slo-mo, accompanied by Mr. Anderson's peculiar and emotionally choice brand of music (for some reason, though much of it is disparate, his music always makes me think of the Beatles. In fact, much of his filmmaking makes me think anglophile, though he is a Texan. It is something to do with the dryness perhaps, both in British wit and way of living and in the Texas desert air.). These and other scenes work not only as fantastic stylistic filmmaking but often as heavy metaphor that works perfectly for Mr. Anderson’s oddly and intricately constructed world of storytelling.
The Darjeeling Limited is a triumph. And it’s strange, because Mr. Anderson’s last film “The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou” had quite the opposite effect on me. There I thought that all his detailing and absurd comedy added up to a whole lot of masturbatory filmmaking. Maybe I missed something. Or maybe not. Filmmaking is a delicate balance, and to pull off something as tone heavy, personal and tender as the “Darjeeling Limited” is no easy feat indeed. Too much salt and you’ll spoil the whole thing.
Story: A Family troubles again from Mr. Anderson; this time three estranged brothers meet on a train in India for a spiritual and physical journey.
Acting: B Classic Anderson, the driest of the dry. Satisfying, though a character’s range might be limited by this peculiar world that they inhabit. B
Visuals: A More classic Anderson (or rather Yeoman, the DP) A
Originality/Innovation: B+ Anderson makes intensely personal films.
Enjoyability Grade: A Funny, emotional, stylized, specific and in some strange ways, restrained?
Overall Grade: A A triumph.
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