The Darjeeling Limited

The Darjeeling Limited
Directed by	Wes Anderson
Written by	Wes Anderson Roman Coppola Jason Schwartzman
Starring	Owen Wilson Adrien Brody Jason Schwartzman Anjelica Huston Natalie Portman Bill Murray
Distributed by	Fox Searchlight Pictures
Release dates	September 29 2007 (limited) October 5, 2007
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$17,500,000 US (approximately)

The Darjeeling Limited is a drama-comedy film that tells the story of a journey through India by three brothers, played by Owen Wilson, Adrien Brody, and Jason Schwartzman. The fifth feature film by director Wes Anderson, it was written by him, Roman Coppola, and Jason Schwartzman. The film also stars Waris Ahluwalia, Amara Karan, Barbet Schroeder and Anjelica Huston, with Natalie Portman, Irfan Khan and Bill Murray in cameo roles.

Summary

The film begins as we see a businessman (cameo by Bill Murray) racing to reach a train. As he is about to lose the train we see Peter (Adrien Brody) also running to the same train. Peter makes it to the train, leaving the businessman missing his train. Peter makes his way to his compartment, where he finds Jack (Jason Schwartzman) and later Francis (Owen Wilson) who has a large amount of head bandages on due to a supposed motorcycle accident. We find out that the three are brothers (last name Whitman) and have come, apparently at Francis' suggestion, together in India on the Darjeeling Limited, on what he hopes to be a spiritual and emotional journey.

At lunch, we find out that 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. He asks his brothers if they would be interested in reading it. Francis responds by questioning how long it is. Jack shows his frustration with his eldest brother's familiar answer. 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 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. 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. Once they get back on the train, the snake escapes; the chief steward (Waris Ahluwalia) captures and confiscates it, then threatens to kick off the train before relenting. The next 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's assistant Brendan (Wallace Wolodarsky) leaves him and gets back on the train after Francis insults him.

Left with only their luggage and a letter from their mom, they try to do a ceremony that Francis found out about to bring them closer which involves peacock feathers and praying and going off by themselves. Although the instructions were apparently to bury the feather, only Francis does this correctly. Jack let his go to blow away, and Peter kept his. 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 Peter is unable to save his and the boy is killed when the boat flips over. The two boys bring the brothers back to their village, with Peter holding the dead boy. The father (Irfan Khan) becomes distraught over the death. The villagers aid the three brothers and invite them to the funeral of the boy. They leave the village and the villagers watch the three men leave.

They are taken to the airport, and are taking the next flight out back home. Peter finds out that he and his wife will be having a boy. When they reach the plane, they decided instead of taking the plane, they should find their mother. So they head off to a monastery in the mountains where they find their mother, who appears to be a nun or missionary. At night, they have a discussion. They ask their mother why she did not attend their father's funeral, to which she says "she didn't want to" and says that the people here needed her, to which the brothers reply "What about us?." Attempting to end the discussion, she says that "The past happened, but it's over. Isn't it?." Francis replies, "Not for us." She leaves the room saddened and tells them that she'll "see them in the morning."

The next morning, Francis wakes up to see Jack at the table with food on it. Jack explains to Peter and Francis that their mom has left, to which the children say she does it every time. At a stroke of inspiration 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, so, they run for the train (with the stewards following also with their luggage). They decide to leave their luggage because the bags are slowing them down. So, they drop all of their luggage and hop on the train, leaving their bags with the stewards (metaphorically also leaving behind their psychological "baggage" as they overcome their differences). They make it to their compartment, and are greeted by the head steward and their stewardess, just like how the movie began. The last scene shows them leaving their room to go "have a drink and a cigarette."

Hotel Chevalier

Main article: Hotel Chevalier

Wes 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. 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.

Themes and motifs

The Darjeeling Limited includes many of Anderson's signature themes and styles, such as forbidden love, parental abandonment and/or death, sibling rivalries, and timeless fashions and props. Anderson has revealed that The River by Jean Renoir, the films of Satyajit Ray (to whom the movie is dedicated) and documentaries on India by Louis Malle were his inspirations for this movie.

Release

The Darjeeling Limited had 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. 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 2 theaters in its opening weekend for an average of $67,469 for each theater. 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.

Critical reception

The film received generally favorable reviews. As of February 2008, on the review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, 67% of critics gave the film positive reviews, based on 149 reviews, with a consensus among critics that the film "will satisfy Wes Anderson fans." On Metacritic, the film had an average score of 67 out of 100, based on 34 reviews.

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." 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." 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.." 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."

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)." 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." 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." New York Magazine critic David Edelstein said that the film is "hit and miss, but its tone of lyric melancholy is remarkably sustained."

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." 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." 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." 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."

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

Film website They Shoot Pictures Don't They currently places the film as the 235th greatest film to be released since the year 2000.

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.

Locations

According to IMDB, much of the film was shot in Jodhpur, Rajastan, India. The setting for the few US-based scenes, and the Himalayan convent, are not listed; however, Peter's business card in the flashback scene shows that they are in New York.

External links

• Official minisite at Fox Searchlight
• IONCINEMA.com interview with Wes Anderson
• The Darjeeling Limited at IMDb
• The Darjeeling Limited at Rotten Tomatoes
• The Darjeeling Limited at Metacritic
• The Darjeeling Limited at Box Office Mojo
• The Darjeeling Limited at AllMovie
• CNN interview in which Owen Wilson mentions the film
• An open letter to Wes Anderson from Steely Dan offering musical contributions for the film