Week 40: The Darjeeling Limited

I’ve been hanging onto the Darjeeling Limited as a little jewel in my Netflix Queue, saving it for just the right moment. You see, I love me some Wes Anderson. I would watch him direct traffic. But the Darjeeling Limited is…well…it’s a turd, Wes. It’s a turd.

Believe me when I say this makes me very sad. This isn’t like discovering that Mariah Carey’s Glitter was a turd, which is the least surprising discovery of all time. Anyway, Darjeeling had all the elements that make a Wes Anderson film great: quirky characters, whimsical charm, melancholy plot, cool soundtrack, Bill Murray (just barely), a Wilson brother…

But it just didn’t work.

And I think I know why. At no point in the film was I unaware that I was watching Owen Wilson, Adrien Brody and Jason Schwartzman pretending to be brothers. This for me was like watching a stage play – you’re never unaware that you’re watching actors acting. Sure, they had good chemistry, there were sweet, touching and funny moments, but for me the movie was an exercise in self-indulgence on the part of the director and actors. Everything about Darjeeling was just a little too artificial, with the exception of the setting itself, India, which is sort of the star of the film.

Maybe one of the things I love about a great Wes Anderson film is that I usually fall in love with the characters, and I only fell in like with the brothers of Darjeeling.

Another note about the DVD: it contains a short film called Hotel Chevalier, which is billed as “Part 1 of the Darjeeling Limited”. Hotel Chevalier wasn’t played in theaters: this was an extra created for the DVD.

We were confused about whether or not to watch it first – would it ruin the film or give us information that we couldn’t live without? We decided to watch it first and I wish we hadn’t. It would have been much sweeter to see this little slice of backstory after viewing the film.

My disappointments with The Darjeeling Limited continue to mount.

A Television Aside

This is a departure from movies but I had to share. Once a year through his job in media, hubby receives preview discs of each major television network's new line-up of programming. This is CBS, ABC, NBC and FOX's collective chance to dazzle potential advertisers with their sharp, witty and poignant new programming. And it's usually a total disaster. Last night, we were in between Netflix discs, so we decided to watch the offerings of CBS.

We might just have simply walked to the bathroom and stared at the toilet for a half hour, because we would have found the same contents there. Every single show was a turd. Were I the president of CBS programming, I might be polishing my resume. Or maybe no one is in charge there and so the teenage interns have taken over:

"Hey, dude, my little bro is driving me nuts this summer. I need to get rid of him. So let's have a show where we throw a bunch of kids together in an old west ghost town! And we'll call it Kid Nation!"

"Sweet! I wish I didn't have so many pimples. And that I didn't hate myself. I wonder if Jennifer Lopez hates herself. She has to hate her husband. He's greasy. Hey, that gives me an idea...what if we pander to the Latino community with some crappy recycled version of Dynasty?!"

"Dude! Only we'll call it Cane and we'll make it about the sexy, dangerous world of sugar cane. Get it? sugar cane/Cane? Man, that is blowin' my freakin' mind."

"Fuckin' A! Let's see. There's Jimmy Smits. He's Mexican or something, right? And that Nestor guy from Jessie and Lost. He's not busy, right? Oh, and that Hector Elizondo guy. I'm sure he's available. That's about all of them, right?"

"Dude, this is gonna be off the hook."

"Or off the cane, don't you mean?"

"Man, you should write for the show. You're a fuckin' genius."