The Darjeeling Limited (2007)
Don’t wanna get off this train.
Presentation:
Wes Anderson approaches the turning point in his career right before his peak Moonrise Kingdom. This film encapsulates the beginning of his thematically high concept geographic adventures, romanticizing Indian life on trains. If you’ve ever been on a cruise or a train overnight, you might also find the quirks of train life depicted here to be magically endearing. The trio of brothers are rowdy and competitive and as the youngest of 4, I related to the story quite a bit. However, the climatic reveal of the film was not integral to the story, as this really is a quirky adventure film in disguise, what would soon be the hallmark of his future films.
Conclusion:
The story here is quite loose and mostly background noise to the whimsical adult adventures of traveling on a train in exotic lands. This marks the beginning of Wes Anderson’s magnum opus as well as his dive off the deep end of art house projects. You either love Wes Anderson films or don’t, though this is the last of his films that preserve a more intimate side of himself as a storyteller. I quite like the mood of this one.
Recommendations
Before there was thriller there was Hitchcock.