Darjeeling Limited Stuff

Hey, so as well as getting a cat and GW getting a tattoo, we also caught the Darjeeling Limited on Friday night and though I was expecting to be disappointed, it just turns out that this is more than likely Wes Anderson’s critical backlash movie than the film being disappointing in any way.

The fact of the matter is, he doesn’t really change his style at all what with his particular screen fonts, colors, screen formatting and the like, he has his style, and other than tweaks (instead of a montage, he uses a series of traincar sets on a soundstage to show what each character is up to.) its pretty much his own style, and I, for one, like it.

As far as the movie itself, I really liked that he focused almost exclusively on the three brothers (and wish he would have made shorts like Hotel Chevalier for all 3) and their quest. I liked all three actors (GW liked Adrian Brody especially) and the way they interplayed with each other, and though the metaphors in the film were really obvious (even obvious enough that I got them) they were presented and choreographed well.

What I liked, and this is kind of a spoiler, is that the three brothers had split up their deceased father’s 20-odd piece luggage set, and they were all carrying what amounted to different sized pieces of luggage the entire trip. So they had this huge set of luggage with them whereever they went, and usually its just kind of amusing that they have all these pieces of luggage. And it isn’t until the end, when they have to abandon the luggage to hop the train home, that they are unburdening themselves of, literally, the baggage from their father’s death. It’s done in the usual slow-motion Wes Anderson style, and it works on a humorous, obvious and emotional level and ends the film in a very satisfying way.

Anyway, good stuff, and I liked it better than Tennenbaums and Life Aquatic. I doubt anything will replace Bottle Rocket in my heart.

So there you go, no cats in this one.