2008 Woodie Awards
SectionsDirector's movie hits the spot for no explainable reason
Thaddeus Stoklasa
Issue date: 11/6/07 Section: Features
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Writer/director Wes And-erson has brought forth another movie following the exploits of a group of damaged people mulling through a world that's just bizarre enough to be our own.
"The Darjeeling Limited" follows the cross-India journey of three strange, estranged brothers with way too much baggage. The oldest brother, Francis (Owen Wilson), organized the trip after a recent brush with death in hopes of having a spiritual experience and bonding once more with his younger brothers, whom he hasn't seen since their father's death one year before.
Middle-brother, Peter (Ad-rien Brody), has been hoarding their late father's personal items and is having trouble with his marriage, based largely on the fact that he had always assumed he would get divorced, and it hasn't happened yet.
Jack (co-writer Jason Schw-artzman), the youngest, is a fiction writer who we discover in the short film "Hotel Che-valier," which precedes the feature and can also be downloaded for free from iTunes, has been living in a Paris hotel room for an indeterminate amount of time and is having trouble shaking his feelings for his ex-girlfriend.
The three begin their journey on a pastel blue train called The Darjeeling Limited. The brothers work hard to avoid any real closeness by keeping secrets behind one another's backs and generally butting heads in a convincing sort of brotherly way. Jack attempts a fling with the stewardess, Rita (Amara Karan). Francis's hairless assistant Brendan (Wallace Wolo-darsky), stashed in another car, works on the itinerary from a room near the baggage car.
Through a combination of being overly medicated with Indian pain killers and a fight that ends with pepper spray, the brothers are kicked off the train and left to find their own way through the Indian countryside.
Being the unworldly person I am, I find the film's setting to be highly enlightening. My only prior contact with India being half-remembered bits from history classes in semester's past combined with "Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom." It's nice to get a more contemporary view of one of the largest countries in the world.
"The Darjeeling Limited" follows the cross-India journey of three strange, estranged brothers with way too much baggage. The oldest brother, Francis (Owen Wilson), organized the trip after a recent brush with death in hopes of having a spiritual experience and bonding once more with his younger brothers, whom he hasn't seen since their father's death one year before.
Middle-brother, Peter (Ad-rien Brody), has been hoarding their late father's personal items and is having trouble with his marriage, based largely on the fact that he had always assumed he would get divorced, and it hasn't happened yet.
Jack (co-writer Jason Schw-artzman), the youngest, is a fiction writer who we discover in the short film "Hotel Che-valier," which precedes the feature and can also be downloaded for free from iTunes, has been living in a Paris hotel room for an indeterminate amount of time and is having trouble shaking his feelings for his ex-girlfriend.
The three begin their journey on a pastel blue train called The Darjeeling Limited. The brothers work hard to avoid any real closeness by keeping secrets behind one another's backs and generally butting heads in a convincing sort of brotherly way. Jack attempts a fling with the stewardess, Rita (Amara Karan). Francis's hairless assistant Brendan (Wallace Wolo-darsky), stashed in another car, works on the itinerary from a room near the baggage car.
Through a combination of being overly medicated with Indian pain killers and a fight that ends with pepper spray, the brothers are kicked off the train and left to find their own way through the Indian countryside.
Being the unworldly person I am, I find the film's setting to be highly enlightening. My only prior contact with India being half-remembered bits from history classes in semester's past combined with "Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom." It's nice to get a more contemporary view of one of the largest countries in the world.
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