The Darjeeling Limited (Wes Anderson, 2007): USA

Reviewed by Byron Potau. Viewed at Metro 4, Santa Barbara, Ca.

The Darjeeling Limited

The atrocious The Darjeeling Limited is testament to the recent struggles of one of cinema’s brightest directors.  Where did Wes Anderson go wrong?  After three brilliant films, the eccentric director seems to have lost his way.  So truly great did his career begin that it is unnerving to see just how empty and shallow one of his films can be, as in the case of this film.

Preceding the actual film is the short film, Hotel Chevalier, which may as well be part of the main film, The Darjeeling Limited, and should be watched prior to the film.  Hotel Chevalier deals with a sexual liaison between Jack, played by Jason Schwartzman, and his ex-girlfriend, played by Natalie Portman, who has tracked him down in Paris to this hotel.  After some banter, they get down to business.  The short is well executed, though overrated, with Portman especially lovely to look at despite some unexplained bruises on her body.

The main film begins strongly with Bill Murray’s cameo appearance as a businessman late for his train.  Murray leads us to the platform as he chases the train, but it soon becomes apparent that he will not catch it.  He is overtaken by a younger, more athletic man, Jack’s brother Peter, played by Adrien Brody, that does manage to catch the train as The Kinks’ This Time Tomorrow overtakes the soundtrack.  Unfortunately, after this energetic and slyly comical opening, it is all downhill from here.  We meet the third brother Francis, played by Owen Wilson, who has organized this trip for he and his brothers, who are, oddly, all in the vicinity of India following their father’s death the previous year.  The plan is to track down their mother, played by Anjelica Huston, who also has retreated to the depths of India following her husband’s death to become a sort of Mother Theresa figure.  The brothers bicker over things like belts and sunglasses while Francis tries to keep them on a tight, regimented schedule, periodically performing rituals that seem pointless and idiotic.  When they finally track down their mother nothing is resolved and she abandons them once again, yet we are meant to believe they have somehow turned a corner.

The film is overflowing with Wes Anderson touches from Jack’s costume taken from Paul McCartney on the Abbey Road album cover to the abrupt and precise pans and tilts Anderson loves so much.  The problem is that Anderson does not know when to stop.  It seems every scene, every shot is calculated to let the audience know that this is no ordinary shot, this is a Wes Anderson signature shot.  It is not long into the film that the audience becomes weary of having the Wes Anderson style rammed down their throats.

If the film achieves anything it is to make us rethink Anderson’s previous film, The Life Aquatic.  Now that we see how bad it can really get it breathes a new appreciation into Aquatic.  Yet, I don’t believe this to be the end of Wes Anderson or the beginning of the end.  Anderson’s early successes have bought him some time, but I think he should go back to those films to find out what is missing and he just may find that the answer is putting Owen Wilson back in the co-writer’s seat.  The writing team of Anderson and Wilson has yet to fail, unlike the two Wilson-less collaborations Anderson has made that have failed to live up to his previous films.  In the case of The Darjeeling Limited it did not even come close.

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Published:
07.30.08 / 5pm
Category:
Films