The Darjeeling Limited Review
by Jerry Saravia (Faust668 AT msn DOT com)September 8th, 2008
THE DARJEELING LIMITED (2007)
Reviewed by Jerry Saravia
RATING: Two stars
I don't know how this could happen but I suppose every director has their bad days. It is a shame to report that "The Darjeeling Limited," though exquisitely made, is a mildly repetitious, uneven pseudo- spiritual journey that never quite finds its footing. It is a major, endless chore to sit through.
Three brothers, Francis, Jack, Peter (Owen Wilson, Jason Schwartzman and Adrien Brody), are traveling on the Darjeeling Limited, a train headed to India. There, they hope to find spiritual enlightenment and some peace of mind. Let's hope so since Francis had been in a bad accident and is covered with bandages, and Peter has found out that his wife is pregnant.
Things go awry from the start. No smoking is allowed on this train, so they keep their windows open. Peter has the bright idea to buy a deadly, poisonous snake and bring it on board the train, only to lose the snake! Rita (Amara Karan), one of the stewardesses, has a brief romp in the hay with Jack, who is going through a bad relationship of his own. Most of the time, we hear them squabbling and bickering but only in that Wes Anderson offbeat manner where every word is uttered with a low-keyed whisper. It is a terrific technique and one of the reasons why I enjoy Wes Anderson's films.
Unfortunately, when the three brothers arrive in India, the movie sinks fast and becomes something of a bore. The Darjeeling Limited footage is so funny and so deadpan that it feels like vintage Anderson. But this trip to India involves a small tragedy and there is a linkage to the funeral of the brothers' father that is awkward and offputting. The brothers eventually meet their mother (Anjelica Huston, always a delight to watch) but, by then, this movie becomes soporific and monotonous. The brothers sit by the fire, do some spiritual dancing for extremely long stretches of film time and essentially bicker and argue, only the offbeat nature is suddenly gone. There is nothing tangible to hang onto and the characters, who were lively and animated at first, become insufferable and unendurable. And director Anderson's constant whip-pans, Francis endless questioning of why each of his brothers are using the phone, the importance of an expensive belt that keeps switching from one set of pants to the other and other ad infinitum gags almost made me gag and give up on the movie.
I have loved all of Wes Anderson's films, and I felt the approach between black comedy and tragedy was sublimely handled in "The Royal Tenenbaums," his best film. "Darjeeling Limited" opts for something similar in its structure but it fails to match the upbeat first half of the movie. I suspect that Wes Anderson is tone deaf on this one.
For more reviews, check out JERRY AT THE MOVIES at:
http://www.geocities.com/faustus_08520/Jerry_at_the_Movies.html
BIO on the author of this page at:
http://www.geocities.com/faustus_08520/index.html
Email me at [email protected] or at [email protected]
More on 'The Darjeeling Limited'...
Originally posted in the rec.arts.movies.reviews newsgroup. Copyright belongs to original author unless otherwise stated. We take no responsibilities nor do we endorse the contents of this review.
