Saturday, October 27, 2007

"The Darjeeling Limited" (2007) - Movie Review

Wes Anderson finds his rhythm in “The Darjeeling Limited”. The reaction for “Rushmore” was confusing on accepting that I got entertainment but not able to completely accept it. In “The Royal Tennenbaums”, it got extended further more and yet Wes Anderson along with Owen Wilson perplexed me. If a character is mean, how can you gift wrap it and provide as a syllable for a film as a word? These guys have the answer and “Rushmore”, “The Royal Tennenbaums” has seasoned me on what to see in their films. Entering with that premise, I was thinking whether a first timer of this experience would have the same fun I had. I am positive about their enjoyment.

With the short film opening of “Hotel Chevalier” which is marked as Part 1 for the main feature, the feel of the horizontal camera movement boosted to look forward a cool, funny yet substantial film of a kind. In “Hotel Chevalier” we meet Jack (Jason Schwartzman) having himself to hanging on to his ex-girlfriend (Natalie Portman) and we come to know it is vice-versa. Still these two know their relationship is in a non-survival stage. The zing of the break-up and the nostalgia of it are visible in both of them. It does not make it difficult to understand the main feature if the small film is missed but the information and picture of knowing what happened to Jack amplifies the joy and how different it is going to be for him in the end of the film.

Francis (Owen Wilson) has a control issue which we come to know he inherited from his mother (Angelica Houston). He calls on his brother Jack and Peter (Adrien Brody) to go on a spiritual cum personal explorative journey in India. As soon as they meet and greet each other, we do wonder why they need to invent their connection and revive their lost brotherhood. They look fine and appreciate each other. Soon we come to know the reality over their smoke and drink session. No one trusts each other. Jack and Peter have some kind of trust but they break it in the journey. They sure need a reconnection and more than that they need to grow up from age 15. They are competitive in such a high school kid fashion. The way they discuss their “being raised” and the gauging of their attachment towards their father tells us how lost they are. But more importantly than that is we get to know how much they have been disconnected from each other in these years.

As much as we get to know their personal relationship in question for Jack and Peter, we never know Francis. May be he got into this lock hold of loneliness and wanted to bond to the only two people in the world who can understand him and of all unconsciously like to be controlled. Wes Anderson’s character are a touch of fantasy of dysfunctional nature but the human value they emote in the unpredicted circumstances make them come to earth with the possibilities of their existence. Francis has bigger agenda than the spiritual reconnection. That is to meet their mother who has shredded off the relationship and hard enough to not come for the funeral of her husband and these three kid’s fatherhood hero. Brendan (Wallace Wolodarsky) who is the personal assistant in the depths of other part of train for Francis wonders why Francis asks again and again whether she knows and is aware of their arrival. Francis says, “What if she does not wants to see us?” and Brendan still wondering, “She is your mother”. This is the believability Anderson creates. While it is astonishing to have an assistant being as controlled for the lonely man in an alien land in a train, he gives these lines to promote the inner enigma of doubts in his characters which are facts for many.

The merchandise which identifies a character is another inventive and independent piece of his film making Anderson brings in. This is not a “Lost in Translation” and the Indian back ground just provides a background of its taste and blend of classical and cultural spiciness reflecting this strange and interesting personalities. As Roger Ebert mentions about the character of Rita (Amara Karan, who by the way gives a short and impressive performance) in his review about how the screenwriters managed remove the stereotypic samples of Indian people, I got reminded of my view as such being an Indian. Indeed I was surprised and kind of doubted the possibility of a character that can have a boy friend. And also instinctive and “non-Indian” enough to be intimate with an American in a train rest room. You know what, I have said to my American friends that sex seem to be a matter of taboo in India especially pre-marital is looked upon as a crime but it happens without notice and now a day seeing the story of the movies coming out in India, it is surfacing. Rita is real and I believe it.

Anderson’s execution of his style is pitch-perfect and addresses many colours which were present in his previous films but missed the soul. Here he collects the roots of his creativity and blends in properly with this performance by three estranged and aloof characters of his previous films. They remind those fanciful mean fantasy people existing in a world Wes Anderson and Owen Wilson created for them. The dynamics and the properties of emotional gravity varied on the control of their screenplay. In “The Darjeeling Limited”, Anderson with Roman Coppola and Jason Schwartzman bring them to the real world and mix them in there where those laws do no longer exist. The characters does not know it and behave to their honesty which is what makes this movie come out of the screen and speak with us jovially, mean and sometimes enlightening as well.

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