Last night I finally watched The Darjeeling Limited. If you haven't seen this, you should at least have a good idea whether or not you will like it...all you have to do is look back on every other Wes Anderson movie you have seen, and you will like it as much as you like those.
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This is Anderson's best movie yet, in my humble opinion. Beyond the fact that I truly enjoyed this movie soley for the sake of the story it told, I also loved the message it conveyed. Three brothers traveling through India looking for a "life-changing experience," trying to find something powerfully "spiritual." Not surprisingly, they fail. I won't give away what happens next, but I will say that as they move away from their desperate attempt to experience the profound, the profound finds them. It reminds me in many ways of Eugene Peterson's writings on spirituality, where he reminds us that the spiritual is rooted deeply into the everyday. It is in relationships, both new and old, and in the everyday world around us.
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Last note on the movie, then I will shut up. Two of my favorite images in the movie are the train and the baggage. The train is where everybody is, searching for something more without seeming to really be looking. When the brothers finally leave the train, while everybody else remains, they finally begin to find answers, or at least better questions, as well as themselves and a way to be brothers and friends once again. The bags seem to be representative of past baggage (maybe a bit of a cliched read, so I apologize), as the brothers attempt to hold onto the past. Holding onto the past keeps them out of the present, and when they finally toss the bags on their way back to the train at the end of the movie I wanted to stand up and cheer! They were back on the train, but they were not the same people anymore, nor was their relationship the same. Hallelujah. Perfect movie.
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Peace,
Matt
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Oh yeah, and the soundtrack was awesome. Again, not surprising. But still cool.
3 comments:
Thanks for this review, Matt. I too found the film wonderful (but I'm a Wes Anderson nut, so I suppose it's no surprise). I saw this just a month or so after our fathers died and I know it is written into my grief -- I will likely always remember this film along with my father. I am thankful for this movie perhaps more than any other in recent memory. Objective critique seems impossible for me since the film feels like a part of my life from this season. After watching it, I wanted to watch it with my brother, but I know he would hate it. So I can only dream about what it would be like to go on a similar journey with him.
I wrote my reflection on the film here.
Good review. I really want to see this movie.
I love Wes Anderson stuff- and I kind of hated this movie. No, hate is too strong, because I still loved looking at it, and the acting was terrific. But the stuff w/ the baggage just seemed too heavy handed to inspire me. And all of their little tics (glasses, meds, etc) seemed like he was screaming "LOOK AT THESE INTERESTING CHARACTERS. I'M SO QUIRKY" I wanted to like it, I really did. But when the credits rolled I just kinda though "eh"
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