
(
Note: Possible spoilery things ahead.)
Like most other gals of a certain age and IQ level (72, for the recky), I regard
Wes Anderson as a God.
Rushmore might be one of my favorite movies of all-time, and
Royal Tenenbaums and
Bottle Rocket follow closely behind. Then
Life Aquatic happened, and it seemed that Wes had not necessarily lost his touch, but rather exaggerated it, confusing "whimsy" for "plot."
Which would maybe explain why my expectations were fairly low for his latest movie, The Darjeeling Limited, a 90 minute journey through India by way of a train decorated with all the bells and whistles of a Wes Anderson mode of transportation, including, but not limited to, many many words and signs
written in Futura font. Three brothers, played by my beloved
Owen Wilson, the clutchable
Jason Schwartzman, and the "Doesn't Look Related to Either of Them"
Adrien Brody. They are travelling deep into India on a "spiritial journey" or sorts, a trip planned by Wilson's character Francis, who has another agenda in mind.

The first half of the movie is enjoyable and strangely humorous in typical Wes Anderson fashion. But about halfway through, a plot twist throws the film's tone on its ass and expects us to just go with the flow.
Darjeeling is one of those movies that has a perfect ending... about 20 minutes before the actual "let down" ending. The movie also contains plenty of ham-fisted symbolism -- one they are booted from the train, the film literally gets completely off-track; and a montage towards the end where
actual baggage is used to represent the emotional kind. People who enjoy racism theories
will certainly appreciate this article. Visually, however, it's a treat (I've been eating Saag Paneer ever since). Overall, I enjoyed it enough to recommend it to others. However....

Here is the one major gripe I have with
The Darjeeling Limited:
THE ENTIRE THING IS ONE REALLY COOL, REALLY SEXY APPLE COMMERCIAL. Really. It's amazing Steve Jobs wasn't added as a fourth bro. In fact, the first 13 minutes of the movie has been chopped off, removed from the film and made into a short called
Hotel Chevalier, which can be downloaded on -- you guessed it -- Itunes! The movie features
Jason Schwartzman,
Natalie Portman, and an
Ipod (with a Bose speaker dock, of course) getting busy in a Parisian hotel room. Portman looks fantastic in most of it -- note to the fellas, you see her bare ass -- though we were a bit disturbed at one shot that had her perched on the edge of a stool looking like a greyhound in need of some water. Really, those ribs. Her performance is good, and roughly 48 percent less annoying than in
Garden State (blame Braff.)
And let me tell you, if you were planning on seeing
Darjeeling without catching this short beforehand, you will spend about 15 percent of the movie having no idea what's going on. It's essential to the plot. Don't have Itunes? Here's the good news:
You can download it! Thank God for that.
Little Mr. Ipod is used as a story device throughout the film -- and get this, he actually CHANGES throughout, from a second generation model (with the little red lit buttons) to a more "modern" fourth gen click wheel version. Also, you will notice that Owen's assistant in the movie uses a pretty sweet looking Apple laptop to coordinate their trip. In a movie that goes out of its way to evoke a very specific retro cool look, the Apple product placements stand-out like the PC guy on a Milan runway.
But will anyone bitch about it? Of course not. Because Apple is "cool" and "hip" and "now". You bet your ass if once every ten minutes Adrien Brody pulled out a Swiffer WetJet, people would have a problem - especially if half the movie premiered on
Swiffer.com! (An excellent site, trust.)
The point: It seems like Wes Anderson bowed to some kind of promotional financial pressure to sever an essential part of the film in order to direct people over to Apple's Itunes. Which just seems wrong and against his Indie film roots. And it did kind of ruin the movie in a way. But blatant movie advertising aside,
The Darjeeling Limited is an enjoyable and fun but ultimately forgettable film that relies on superficial character traits and a literal freight train to drive the story along. Which is our way of saying: Check it out!