The Darjeeling Limited (2007) I'm pretty sure I've seen at least two other Wes Anderson movies that I liked - "Rushmore" and "The Royal Tennebaums". Both of which are unique and stylistic movies. What I remember working there doesn't seem to work here for me.
Anderson's directing becomes a part of the story, almost a character. It's an artificial, awkward, overly self conscious style that seems to get in the way of the story and characters. But then these are artificial, awkward and overly self conscious characters too. The direction comes off as just a bit too cute for my taste. It smacks of the director saying "See how clever I am". Spare me from clever directors.
It's the story of three brothers who come to India to try and find their family bond. They haven't seen one another for a year following the death of their father. Oldest brother Francis (Owen Wilson) is recovering from some kind of accident, middle brother Peter (Adrian Brody) is fleeing his insecurities about marriage and fatherhood and baby Jack (Jason Schwartzman) is worrying about an intense but strange relationship he has with a girlfriend (Natalie Portman). They eventually connect with their prodigal mother (Angelica Huston) who has joined a convent serving the poor of India. Bill Murray has a walk on role as a business man who misses a train.
The DVD begins with a short film called "The Hotel Chevalier" which takes a short, weird look at the relationship between Jack and his girlfriend. Don't ask me to make sense of it. The two characters are peculiar and unsympathetic and I just don't care about them or their self inflicted problems.
But then that's pretty much how I feel about all the characters and this movie. You're not going to learn much about them along the way and I doubt you're going to care too much about them either.
"There's so many things we don't know about each other". At the end of the movie you'll feel the same way.
Rating - ** Not Impressed
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