The Darjeeling Limited (2007)

I first discovered Wes Anderson with Royal Tenenbaums which to this day is still my go to favourite movie of all time. I'm a huge fan of his style of film making sometimes pretencious yes, but there is a lot of directorial talent there.

Darjeeling Limited follows the story of 3 brothers who after the death of their father travel around india on "The Darjeeling Limited" train and attempt to go on a spiritual journey to re-connect with eachother.

Darjeeling opens with what is actually one of Wes Anderson's finest moments. We follow Bill Murray who is playing a business man, we see him in a taxi rushing to the train station, the train is leaving and we follow him rushing for it. The camera slows and Adrian Brody also running for the train over takes Murray and reaches the train. It's a great moment, a passing of the tourch if you will from Murray to Brody, as muuray has been a major fixture of Anderson's movies since Rushmore in 1998. There is also a scene where some kids are playing on a raft on a river and it gets swept away. The guys jump in to save them, adrian brody's character is on the raft with the kid swimming to safety when it flips and both end up under the water. This is followed by a muffled dip in the audio (much as you might expect in a war movie) and we see Jason's character running across the bank. A still moment, then Adrian's character emerges from the water with blood down his face and shirt holding the kid. He quickly announces "he's dead,he's already died" This has to be one of Anderson's finest moments, he doesn't give you a second to adjust. The raft is turned over quick, then followed by frantic running and dip of audio, then when adrian emerges he ends any hope straight away. A brave move, but it worked. I may say that if you're going to be picky you could point fault that maybe this characters death is mainly used to service the toher characters story and segway into a flashback. However, the excellent direction that is taken in that scene totally makes up for it.

All performances are top notch. Adrien Brody shines here adapting quickly and perfectly to anderson's somewhat quirky style. Owen Wilson is solid as always, his character here reminded me very much of his role in bottle rocket, which is of course a wellcomed addition. Anjelica Huston another wes Anderson regular is also back and puts in the best performance i have seen from her and spends way too little time on screen. It's a more subtle performance than in her previous collaborations with Anderson, and benefits for it.

Then there's Jason Schwartzman. Before the film played, you are treated to a 15 minute short movie, Hotel Chevalier. A prequel of sorts to Darjeeling featuring Jason's character Jack and his on-off girlfriend played by Natalie Portman. You get back story to Jason's character, and works perfectly with Darjeeling. It's somewhat art house, and fairly risqué too. Jason's character in Hotel/Darjeeling, reminded me of an older version of his character from Rushmore, just bit more successful with the ladies. He still played it with that conflicted mind, and a quiet, almost depressive attitude, much like Max fischer from Rushmore.

The scenery and interia of the train are fantastic with every bit of detail you would expect from Anderson. It used tracking shots from time to time in the train, much like the open interia from life aquatic. All of Anderson's films have ended with a slow motion end sequence leading to the credits, expect this one. Which (though a little disapointed, cus a fanboy like me i was wondering how it was gonna end in slow motion) he did use slow motion much more throughout the film brilliantly

All in all, this is not as funny as Life Aquatic, it may share a little too many conventions with Royal Tenenbaums. However what you have here is a beautiful looking film, with great direction, a top notch cast, great use of music and a poetic quiet mood that carries the film across, allowing for moments of chaos. Thats actually interesting because there are a fair few slap stick comedy moments or caper moments in this film (the snake, mace ect ect). It worked well previously in Life Aquatic and there were moments of it in Tenenbaums and Bottle Rocket. However what we have with darjeeling is a subtle mix of the slapstick comedy of Aquatic mixed with the subtle character driven narrative of Tenenbaums. Wes has done it (yet) again (and twice if you count Hotel Chevalier)