Despite carrying a “love him or hate him” reputation as a
writer/director in Hollywood, eccentric filmmaker Wes Anderson
had never made a movie that provided me a reason to feel
strongly in one way or another about his career before his
latest picture, The Darjeeling Limited. From Bottle
Rocket to Rushmore to The Life Aquatic with Steve
Zissou, all of the filmmaker’s efforts seemed to leave me
feeling indifferently. Even after responding favorably to
Anderson’s The Royal Tenenbaums back in 2001, I still
wasn’t able to conjure up any emotions concerning his work. I
was on the fence about the guy’s style, admiring its notable
cleverness while recognizing the fact that it lacked much-needed
senses of consequence and context.
The Darjeeling Limited has
finally provided me the answer as to whether or not Anderson has
in him the ability to make a masterpiece, and this answer is not
encouraging. The film may contain much of the same quirky,
creative dialogue that has distinguished the filmmaker’s
previous pictures, but clearly shows that he hasn’t the faintest
sense of purpose in his work. That Anderson’s past efforts were
able to at least appear as though they were of some significance
is a testament to how involving and fresh said dialogue was.
The Darjeeling Limited exposes the hollowness of the
writer/director’s oeuvre. Now that the initially shocking charm
of Anderson’s knack for verbal irony and witty vernacular has
worn off, it becomes readily apparent in this film that he has
little of substance to say about his characters or the story
that they embody.
As The Darjeeling Limited plods
along, it becomes progressively unbearable. When we first meet
the main characters—admittedly basic rehashes of those in other
Anderson films—they are able to come across as being relatively
charming. The film’s central trio consists of three brothers:
Francis (Owen Wilson), Peter (Adrien Brody), and Jack (Jason
Schwartzman). After not seeing each other since the death of
their father, they all get together to take a train-trip through
India that Francis has planned for them. Each has their quirks,
as all Anderson characters do, and these are amusing for awhile.
When the three are confined to the train and merely engage in
small-talk (what Anderson does best) amongst themselves, the
movie is entertaining. The main problem with the film is that
its plot only focuses on the brothers’ time on the locomotive
for so long.
When Francis, Peter, and Jack are
finally kicked off the train by its compulsive Chief Steward (Waris
Ahluwalia), the material wears quickly. It becomes clear that
Anderson’s exercise doesn’t have a refined enough thesis to be
considered effective. (He dabbles in themes relating to loss,
kinship, and country, but never hones in on any of them.) During
the second half of the picture, there are scenes involving a
death and a climactic meeting between the brothers and their
socially-strained mother, but these sincere moments carry no
apparent resonance to the picture on the whole. As a result, the
once appreciably quirky dialogue present soon becomes irritating
due to its sheer inconsequence. Before the film was over, I
ended up hating the trio because there was frankly no reason for
them to talk in the circles that they do. As soon as the viewer
realizes that the obscure, uncanny style of speech that has
become Anderson’s Signature has no clear reason for existing in
this film, the gimmick annoys far more than it delights or
mystifies (as it has in the past, when it seemed to have greater
relevance to the story).
I wanted to love The Darjeeling
Limited; it very well could’ve been Anderson’s best film had
he worked to develop any sense of authenticity to support the
material. It’s a shame that the movie ends up being so aimless
because it has so much going for it. Wilson, Brody, and
Schwartzman are all great at inventing their characters, but the
script’s lack of definition provides the actors no room to
develop said characters. Anderson vividly depicts the people and
places of India, but doesn’t use them to accomplish anything in
terms of the film’s narrative or its thematic values.
Ultimately, The Darjeeling Limited fails to affect the
viewer in any positive way whatsoever. It has extinguished any
curiosity I may have felt for Anderson’s work in the past; I am
not especially looking forward to his next picture.
-Danny Baldwin, Bucket Reviews
Review Published on: 10.17.2007
Screened on: 10.14.2007 at the Landmark Hillcrest Cinemas in San Diego,
CA.