The Darjeeling Limited

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The Darjeeling Limited
Directed by Wes Anderson
Written by Wes Anderson
Roman Coppola
Jason Schwartzman
Starring Owen Wilson
Adrien Brody
Jason Schwartzman
Anjelica Huston
Waris Ahluwalia
Amara Karan
Bill Murray
Distributed by Fox Searchlight Pictures
Release date(s) September 29, 2007 (limited)
October 5, 2007
Country Flag of the United States United States
Language English
Budget $17,500,000 US (approximately) [1]
Preceded by Hotel Chevalier (2007)
Official website
IMDb profile
Ratings
Australia:  M
Canada (Alberta):  14A
Canada (BC/SK):  PG
Canada (Ontario):  14A
Canada (Manitoba):  14A
Canada (Quebec):  G
Ireland:  15A
New Zealand:  M
United Kingdom:  15
United States:  R

The Darjeeling Limited is a drama-comedy film directed by Wes Anderson, and starring Owen Wilson, Adrien Brody, and Jason Schwartzman. It was written by Anderson, Schwartzmann, and Roman Coppola. The film also stars Waris Ahluwalia, Amara Karan, Barbet Schroeder and Anjelica Huston, with Natalie Portman, Irfan Khan and Bill Murray in cameo roles.

Contents

[edit] Summary

 The plot summary in this article or section is too long or detailed compared to the rest of the article.
Please edit the article to focus on discussing the work rather than merely reiterating the plot.

The film begins with a businessman (Murray) racing to reach a train in rural India. As he is about to lose the train we see Peter (Brody) also running to the same train. Peter makes it to the train, leaving the businessman behind. Peter makes his way to his compartment, where he finds his brothers Jack (Schwartzman) and Francis (Wilson). The latter's head and face are heavily bandaged, as he was in a serious motorcycle accident. Peter and Jack have come to India, apparently at Francis' suggestion, on the titular train, on what he hopes to be a "spiritual journey".

All three have taken advantage of the local pharmaceutical shops upon their arrival in India and summarily dip into each others' stash of drugs. Jack, who hasn't been back in the States in a year, is a writer, and had written a story while in France. The story is apparently based on a flashback shown later in the movie. Jack has a return ticket, and asks Peter not to tell Francis. Francis is trying to get the family back together, and Peter is away from his seven-and-a-half-months pregnant wife, who doesn't know he's in India, and asks Jack not to tell Francis.

Along the trip, Jack falls in love with one of the stewardesses, Rita (Amara Karan) and proceeds to kiss her passionately. On the first stop, the brothers buy a venomous snake, Francis has one of his shoes stolen by a street boy, and Jack buys pepper spray. The next morning back on the train, the snake escapes; the chief steward (Waris Ahluwalia) captures and confiscates it, then threatens to kick them off the train before relenting. They find the train is stopped because it is lost, having apparently took a wrong turn the night before. While the conductors try to locate where they are, the brothers head up to a sand dune to perform a ceremony Francis says will bring them closer together. Instead, Francis reveals the real reason why they are on their trip, to connect with their mother (Anjelica Huston) who did not attend their father's funeral. He withheld this information from them on purpose, knowing that if he told them to begin with, they would never have come. Later that night, Francis and Peter get into a heated argument, leading to a small fight in their compartment, and Jack maces them both. After this fails, Jack runs and smashes into a glass window, which disrupts people on the train. They are kicked off, and Francis' assistant Brendan (Wallace Wolodarsky) leaves him and gets back on the train after Francis insults him about his inability to grow body hair.

Left with only their luggage and a letter from their mother, they try to perform the ceremony, which involves peacock feathers, praying and going off by themselves. Although the instructions were apparently to bury the feather, only Francis performs the ritual correctly. They later camp out for the night. The next morning, they discover three boys trying to cross a rapid river on a wooden raft. The water starts flowing faster, and rips off their support rope which causes all three boys to flip over. Jack, Peter and Francis run to save the boys. Jack and Francis save their kids, but the third boy whom Peter tried to save is killed when the boat flips over and his head smashes into the rocks. The other two boys bring the brothers back to their village, with Peter holding the dead boy. The villagers aid the three brothers and invite them to the boy's funeral as they are boarding a bus to leave. As they pay their respects, they have a flashback to their father's funeral which is the basis for Jack's short story.

They are taken to the airport by bus, and are going to take the next flight out back home. Peter finds out that he and his wife's child will be a boy. When they reach the plane, they decide instead to find their mother. They go to a monastery in the Himalayas where they find their mother, who appears to be a nun or missionary. Francis explains his bandages telling that he "smashed into a hill on purpose on [his] motorcycle". They ask their mother why she did not attend their father's funeral, to which she replies simply that she "didn't want to" and says that the people here needed her, to which the brothers reply, "What about us?" She attempts to bring them all together through meditation, but they think about the people in their lives and the ones they've met along the way. Their mother then leaves saying "To be continued...".

The next morning, Jack explains to Peter and Francis that their mother has left. At a stroke of inspiration during breakfast, they head to the top of the mountain, burying Peter's feather and performing the ritual correctly.

In the end, all three brothers head to the train station, but they are already late for their train, and they run after it to catch it. In this symbolic scene, the brothers literally throw away their baggage they brought with them on the journey, leaving their bags with the porters as they board the moving train. They make it to their compartment, and are greeted by the head steward and their stewardess, as they were when the movie began. Francis goes to give back the passports he took from Jack and Peter, but they both tell him to hang on to them for safe keeping. They then leave the passenger compartment to "have a drink and smoke a cigarette."

[edit] Hotel Chevalier

Main article: Hotel Chevalier

Anderson also wrote and directed the 2007 short film Hotel Chevalier, starring Jason Schwartzman and Natalie Portman. The 13-minute film acts as a prologue to The Darjeeling Limited; In it, Jack's ex-girlfriend turns up unexpectedly at his hotel room in Paris, and they spend the night together. Originally attached to festival screenings of The Darjeeling Limited, it was removed during the limited theatrical release and instead made available on Apple's iTunes Store as a free download. On October 26, 2007, Hotel Chevalier was removed from iTunes in favor of releasing it in theaters with the wide release of The Darjeeling Limited.

[edit] Themes and motifs

The Darjeeling Limited includes many of Anderson's signature themes and styles, such as forbidden love, parental abandonment, sibling rivalries, and timeless fashions and props. Anderson has revealed that The River by Jean Renoir, the films of Satyajit Ray and documentaries on India by Louis Malle were his inspirations for this movie. The film was dedicated to Satyajit Ray and makes allusions to his work as well as him (e.g. the protrait of Ray in the compartment of the train Bengal Lancer towards the end of the film).[2]

[edit] Release

The Darjeeling Limited made its world premiere on September 3, 2007 at the Venice Film Festival, where it was in competition for the Golden Lion. The film's North American premiere was on September 28, 2007 at the 45th annual New York Film Festival, where it was the opening film. It then opened in a limited commercial release in North America on October 5, 2007.[3][4][5] The film opened across North America on October 26, 2007 and in the UK on November 23, 2007, in both territories preceded in showings by Hotel Chevalier. The film grossed $134,938 in two theaters in its opening weekend for an average of $67,469 for each theater.[6] The film (WS Edition) was released on DVD February 26, 2008 on Fox Searchlight with features limited to a behind-the-scenes documentary, theatrical trailer, and the inclusion of Hotel Chevalier.

[edit] Critical reception

The film received generally favorable reviews. As of May 2008, on the review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, 68 percent of critics gave the film positive reviews, based on 154 reviews, with a consensus among critics that the film "will satisfy Wes Anderson fans."[7] On Metacritic, the film had an average score of 67 out of 100, based on 34 reviews.[8]

Chris Cabin of Filmcritic.com gave the film 4 stars out of 5 and described Anderson's film as "the auteur's best work to date."[9] Entertainment Weekly film critic Lisa Schwarzbaum gave the film a "B+" and said "This is psychological as well as stylistic familiar territory for Anderson after Rushmore and The Royal Tenenbaums. But there's a startling new maturity in Darjeeling, a compassion for the larger world that busts the confines of the filmmaker's miniaturist instincts."[10] Armond White of the New York Press said that the film "is so reflective of personal experience (within the context of rarefied pop antecedents) that it returns common emotional power to today’s fragmented, disingenuous popular culture.."[11] A.O. Scott of The New York Times said that the film "is unstintingly fussy, vain and self-regarding. But it is also a treasure: an odd, flawed, but nonetheless beautifully handmade object as apt to win affection as to provoke annoyance. You might say that it has sentimental value."[12]

Timothy Knight of Reel.com gave the film 3 stars out of 4 and said "Although The Darjeeling Limited pales in comparison to Anderson's best film, Rushmore (1998), it's still a vast improvement over his last, and worst film, 'The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou (2004)."[13] Nathan Lee of The Village Voice wrote "A companion piece to Tenenbaums more than a step in new directions, Darjeeling is a movie about people trapped in themselves and what it takes to get free — a movie, quite literally, about letting go of your baggage."[14] The Christian Science Monitor critic Peter Rainer said "Wes Anderson doesn't make movies like anybody else, which is sometimes a good thing and sometimes not. His latest, The Darjeeling Limited, combines what's best and worst about him."[15] New York Magazine critic David Edelstein said that the film is "hit and miss, but its tone of lyric melancholy is remarkably sustained."[16]

Nick Schager of Slant Magazine gave the film 2 stars out of 4 and said "the ingredients that have increasingly defined Wes Anderson's films...seem, with The Darjeeling Limited, to have become something like limitations."[17] Self-described "film critic" Emanuel Levy gave the film a "C" and said "Going to India and collaborating with two new writers do little to invigorate or reenergize director Wes Anderson in The Darjeeling Limited, because he imposes the same themes, self-conscious approach, and serio-comic sensibility of his previous films on the new one, confining his three lost brothers not only within his limited world, but also within a limited space, a train compartment." Levy also said "after reaching a nadir with his last feature, the $50 million folly The Life Aquatic of Steve Zisou [sic], which was an artistic and commercial flop, Anderson could only go upward."[18] Dana Stevens of Slate magazine wrote, "Maybe Anderson needs to shoot someone else's screenplay, to get outside his own head for a while and into another's sensibility. It's telling that his funniest and liveliest recent work was a commercial for American Express."[19] Kyle Smith of the New York Post gave the film 1 1/2 stars out of 4 and said "At a stage in Anderson’s career when he should be moving on, he is instead circling back."[20]

Glenn Kenny of Premiere named it the 5th best film of 2007,[21] and Mike Russell of The Oregonian named it the 8th best film of 2007.[21].

[edit] Soundtrack

Main article: The Darjeeling Limited (soundtrack)

The soundtrack features three songs by The Kinks, "Powerman", "Strangers" and "This Time Tomorrow", all from the 1970 album, Lola versus Powerman and the Moneygoround, Part One, as well as "Play With Fire" by The Rolling Stones. "Where Do You Go To (My Lovely)" by Peter Sarstedt is prominently featured as well, being played within the film more than once. Most of the album, however, features film score music composed by Bengali filmmaker Satyajit Ray and other artists from the cinema of India. The works include "Charu's Theme", from Ray's 1964 film, Charulata, film-score cues by Shankar Jaikishan and classic works by Claude Debussy and Ludwig van Beethoven.

[edit] Locations

According to IMDB, much of the film was shot in Jodhpur, Rajastan. The US-based scenes are shot in Long Island City, New York. The location of the Himalayan convent is not known.

[edit] References

  1. ^ [1] October 26, 2007 Charlie Rose interview (10 minutes+)
  2. ^ a review of wes anderson’s the darjeeling limited[2]. Retrieved 24 December, 2007.
  3. ^ Brooks, Brian (June 2007). NYFF '07 | Wes Anderson's "Darjeeling" to Open 45th New York Film Festival; Coen's "Country" In Centerpiece Slot. indieWIRE. Retrieved on 2007-08-27.
  4. ^ http://www.filmlinc.com/nyff/nyff.html Retrieved 2007-09-30
  5. ^ Bain, Mia (July 2007). Movies by De Palma, Haggis and Ang Lee in competition at Venice film fest. International Herald Tribune. Retrieved on 2007-07-26.
  6. ^ The Darjeeling Limited (2007) - Weekend Box Office. Box Office Mojo. Retrieved on 2007-09-30.
  7. ^ The Darjeeling Limited - Rotten Tomatoes. Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved on 2007-11-14.
  8. ^ Darjeeling Limited, The (2007): Reviews. Metacritic. Retrieved on 2007-11-14.
  9. ^ Chris Cabin. The Darjeeling Limited Movie Review, DVD Release - Filmcritic.com. Filmcritic.com. Retrieved on 2007-09-30.
  10. ^ Lisa Schwarzbaum (2007-09-26). The Darjeeling Limited. Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved on 2007-09-30.
  11. ^ Armond White. MY THREE STOOGES. New York Press. Retrieved on 2007-09-30.
  12. ^ A.O. Scott (2007-09-28). The Darjeeling Limited - Movie - Review - New York Times. The New York Times. Retrieved on 2007-09-30.
  13. ^ Timothy Knight. The Darjeeling Limited (2007). Reel.com. Retrieved on 2007-09-30.
  14. ^ Nathan Lee (2007-09-25). Strangers on a Train. The Village Voice. Retrieved on 2007-09-30.
  15. ^ Peter Rainer (2007-09-28). 'Darjeeling' of 'limited' appeal. The Christian Science Monitor. Retrieved on 2007-09-30.
  16. ^ David Edelstein. The Darjeeling Limited. New York Magazine. Retrieved on 2007-09-30.
  17. ^ Nick Schager (2007-09-20). The Darjeeling Limited. Slant Magazine. Retrieved on 2007-09-30.
  18. ^ Emanuel Levy. Film Review - Darjeeling Limited, The. EmanuelLevy.com. Retrieved on 2007-09-30.
  19. ^ Dana Stevens (2007-09-27). Twee Time. Slate. Retrieved on 2007-09-30.
  20. ^ Kyle Smith (2007-09-26). WES MESS VERY ‘LIMITED’. New York Post. Retrieved on 2007-09-30.
  21. ^ a b Metacritic: 2007 Film Critic Top Ten Lists. Metacritic. Retrieved on 2008-01-05.

[edit] External links

v • d • e
Films directed by Wes Anderson
Features: Bottle Rocket (1996) • Rushmore (1998) • The Royal Tenenbaums (2001) • The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou (2004) • The Darjeeling Limited (2007) • Fantastic Mr. Fox (2009) 
Shorts: Bottle Rocket (1994) • Hotel Chevalier (2007)