The Darjeeling Limited

The Darjeeling Limited (2007), Fox Searchlight Pictures

For movie buffs, watching the work of director Wes Anderson is sort of a rite of passage. His easily recognizable style of powerful yet nonchalant writing and dialogue, accompanied with colorful visuals that exude as much maturity as they do childish fantasy make for a viewing experience that is both easy to understand and difficult to fully analyze. This sentiment rings true in almost all of his work, The Darjeeling Limited being no exception.

The Darjeeling Limited follows three brothers, Francis, Peter, and Jack (played by Owen Wilson, Adrien Brody, and Jason Schwartzman respectively) on a “spiritual” journey through India one year after the death of their father. Having not spoken to each other for over a year, they soon discover that spending an undisclosed amount of time around one another will be more difficult than any of them had anticipated. Through a series of mishaps, they eventually find themselves stranded deep in the heart of the country. There, they start to learn that the only real spiritual healing they need is to grow in brotherly love and mutual understanding with one another.

This film explores some great imagery in terms of costume design and how it relates to the characters’ current situations. For example, Francis (Wilson) spends the majority of the movie with his face wrapped in heavy gauze and bandages, souvenirs from an almost fatal car accident. The bandages and their less-than-coincidental placement over his ears perhaps represent his unwillingness to take advice from others, being the oldest and taking the most after his parents. Meanwhile, Peter (Brody) wears his father’s sunglasses which still have the prescriptions lenses in them. This leaves Peter constantly rubbing his temples to alleviate the head ache, possibly representing how his need to blind himself from the world and his own personal struggles only adds to his pain both physically and psychologically. While these are only a couple examples out of many throughout the film that subtly add to the overall expression of meaning in the movie as a whole, they serve as a testament to the sheer talent and brilliance that is Anderson’s filmmaking.

The only critique which I can offer to a film like this is not entirely to the fault of the director, but rather to the moviegoing public. This film, as with any of Anderson’s other works, is not for everyone. Intentionally stilted performances and simple dialogue can be easily misunderstood as flat or underdeveloped. And Anderson’s unorthodox approach to cinematography and imagery can be viewed as too artsy or nonsensical. However, I feel that The Darjeeling Limited is a bit more of a one-size-fits-all in terms of artistic license and plot progression when compared to Anderson’s other films. There’s just enough for everyone to enjoy, and plenty for any film enthusiast to nerd out over.

The journey of personal discovery is a niche category of film storytelling that happens to be my favorite; some films of this category include A Walk in the Woods (2015) and The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (2013) (I plan on reviewing these in the future). The Darjeeling Limited is the perfect movie for people with similar particular taste as me. I thoroughly enjoyed my time spent aboard the film and I look forward to my next chance to go on the trip again. It was a journey I never wanted to see end.

Overall Rating: Most Triumphant

Entertainment Value: Kept My Attention