The Darjeeling Limited
A few days ago, I wrote an e-mail to Loris about the films I have seen these days, namely “Midnight in Paris” and “The Darjeeling Limited”. I feel like I have poured all my energy into writing this e-mail, trying to come up with what I found memorable and interesting about a film, garnering the reader’s interest for both the film and my impressions of it – exactly the kind of effort I want to put into writing a blog posting. Now that I did so for one single e-mail, I feel incredibly exhausted from it. Writing a blog is exhausting.
So what made “The Darjeeling Limited” so special? Maybe it’s because the three brothers went onto the journey that I never could have had, although, if I think about it properly, they are going onto that journey because of problems I have never had. I never grew up into a wrecked household and never had so much money that the general direction in life was my primary concern. In fact, even though I barely think about it, monetary concerns are an important part of my life.
In the case of “The Darjeeling Limited”, I forgive Wes Anderson for confronting me with problems that are seemingly unrelated to myself. Deep down, by taking away these secular concerns, Anderson is unveiling a much more interesting human characteristics; “The Darjeeling Limited” is one of these films in which everything human is coming together – family, love, being haunted by your past, death, suicide and the all encompassing “what are you going to do with your life?” question, packaged into an enjoyable comedy. By putting the main characters onto a train, the film is a better road movie, because trains are superior to cars. After all, you can meet people on the train.
I was on the verge of tears at the scene where the brothers save the 3 little boys, who – mirroring them in a sense – are also brothers. It was so tragic and beautiful, especially since Peter was the one who called everybody to run and save them in the first place. There is something magical about these carefully crafted Wes Anderson characters, where every single item in the film seems to have a meaning and every tidbit of seemingly trivial dialogue gets a reprise or even a twist somewhere later. The film is not just funny and the characters are not just the way they are – they evolve throughout the film, and the way they do so makes me feel all fuzzy and warm in my heart.
At the bottom line, I enjoyed “The Darjeeling Limited” more than any other Wes Anderson film, I even liked it more than its prequel, “Hotel Chevalier”. I was extremely impressed by how well-made “The Darjeeling Limited” is scripted and directed, and it definitely makes me want to see his other films. I cannot wait to see another film with Bill Murray and whenever his new film comes out, I am wondering how Frances McDormand is going to be in a non-Coen movie.