Dom Robinson reviews
The Darjeeling Limited
Distributed by
Producer:
Wes Anderson, Roman Coppola, Lydia Dean Pilcher and Scott Rudin
Screenplay:
Wes Anderson, Roman Coppola and Jason Schwartzman
Cast :
Peter L. Whitman: Adrien Brody
Jack L. Whitman: Jason Schwartzman
Francis L. Whitman: Owen Wilson
Rita: Amara Karan
Brendan: Wallace Wolodarsky
Chief Steward: Waris Ahluwalia
The Father: Irfan Khan
The Mechanic: Barbet Schroeder
Alice: Camilla Rutherford
The Businessman: Bill Murray
Patricia: Anjelica Huston
Jack's X-Girlfriend: Natalie Portman
The Darjeeling Limited
is a train, but not just any train... Well, it is really.
However, in the case of this film it's the main setting for Wes Anderson's latest film, and like his previous work,
The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou, the set is another stroke
of genius, with the camera panning around as we see a cut-through version of various compartments, and we go from room to
room sometimes, particularly in one scene where it's used incredibly well. This makes the whole thing come across less a
film and more like a play, acted out on a massive set. And the featurettes points out how it's easily taken apart and
put back together to suit.
The three are brothers going on an important journey, following the death of their father. We start as Peter Whitman (Adrien
Brody) boards the train while it's picking up a good pace on the way out of the station, on which he meets up with
the other two, first Jack (Jason Schwartzman) and then Francis (Owen Wilson), had a motorbike accident prior
to this trip. The latter is very controlling about which direction the journey should take, and all the stops they should
make along the way. He's also upset by the fact that he thinks Peter has effectively commandeered some of their late father's
possessions such as the man's glasses and his car keys.
Jack is the more laidback of the three, but they all have pieces of their story that would be unfair to divulge here as you
find all these things out while watching it.
As the train rolls on, they start falling out over little things that amount to not really being able to trust each other,
despite Francis wanting this to be a spiritual and life-changing experience for them all as they haven't really spent much
time together over the years. Their ultimate goal for this is to meet their mother, who they also haven't seen for some time
and has become a nun in a remote community. She's not earning any real money, but the fact she can help people is all she
needs.
Overall, The Darjeeling Limited isn't as great as 'Aquatic' but that's because there's not as much going on. However,
it's still an essential film to see and there's fantastic performances throughout from Brody and Schwartzman. Great support
comes from train hostess Rita (Amara Karan) and there's a nice cameo early on from Bill Murray as a businessman.
Credit also goes to Natalie Portman who plays Jack's ex-girlfriend in a pre-movie short entitled, Hotel
Chevalier. This is a necessary part of the whole thing and I understand was played in cinemas prior to the main
feature.
When it comes to this movie being screened on TV, I hope they don't use the end credits at the end of that 12-minute part
as a chance to waffle over it! Especially since it uses Peter Sarstedt's classic song, "Where Do You Go To My Lovely?"
and that's such a guilty pleasure.
For me, the only weak link in the chain is Owen Wilson. I've really no idea where his star quality is. He's in so
many things and just contributes the same slack-jawed-sounding drifter character.
However, if you're a fan of Jason Schwartzman and Adrien Brody, then they appeared on Breakfast in November 2007 to talk
about the movie
and the interview can be seen here.
There's brilliant direction from Wes Anderson, with perfect use of the full 2.35:1 frame, as before with 'Aquatic', which is
to date the only other film of his that I've seen and that was wonderful, so I really must check out Rushmore and
The Royal Tenanbaums. The picture is perfect throughout and the Dolby Digital 5.1 sound is flawless, creating an
authentic atmosphere (but it's not a special FX piece, hence why it's not getting 5/5). It's worth noting as well that there's
no DD5.1 soundtrack on the Hotel Chevalier opener.
The only real extra, as such, is a featurette, The Darjeeling Limited Walking Tour (21:19), in which Production
Design guy Mark Friedberg introduces us to the train in the movie and how it's all put together, starting with
Peter getting onto it while at speed. The attention to design throughout the train is phenomenal and there's also many
aspects to this piece which will give spoilers if you haven't yet seen film so I won't comment too much about the
contents here. However, I will say that there's one scene involving a plane that you don't physically see, and until
I got to this featurette it completely escaped me that I hadn't seen the plane! :)
By the way, there are some additional Fox trailers (none of this movie, sadly), which are for the new DVDs: Rescue Dawn,
The Savages and Scorsese's new Rolling Stones film in the cinema, Shine a Light. Thankfully, Fox have now seen
sense and added these to the extras menu and not put them before the DVD begins (like an old rental video). This is what
I have been campaigning for, for a long time, and I'm glad that it's finally paid off.
The film contains 24 chapters, subtitles are available in English for the hearing-impaired and the main menu is animated
and scored with a looped piece of music from the film. If anything lets the package down as a whole it's the scarcity of
supplemental material, so I'd advise a rental on this title first.
FILM CONTENT
PICTURE QUALITY
SOUND QUALITY
EXTRAS
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OVERALL
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Review copyright © Dominic Robinson, 2008.
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DVDs reviewed by the editor are watched on a Panasonic TXW32R4 32" widescreen TV
connected to either a Creative Dxr2 DVD-ROM player or Microsoft Xbox and
played through a Sony STR-DB930 amplifier.
PC games reviewed by the editor are on:
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