The Darjeeling Limited (2007)

This is the biggest disappointment yet from Wes Anderson. The real problem isn't that he doesn't correct the things he's been doing wrong in the past (like making the same movie over and over and over...) but that he doesn't do well the things that he's done excellently in the past. Everything is here on the surface, neurotic characters, painstaking art direction, precious and obscure musical choices, dead pan comic delivery, and exotic locale, but there is a surprising lack of emotional depth. I think part of the problem is the lack of any real dramatic tension, and also the very real sense that you've seen this before and more or less know how it will turn out. Anderson always tries (and often succeeds) to get you to love seemingly unlovable characters, but he just falls flat here.

But my particular gripe with this film is the continuing problem of Anderson using people of color as props for working out his main characters problems. He went to the trouble of setting the movie in India, and obviously shooting quite a bit of it there. But nothing shows any insight into what kind of place India is, almost as if it could have been set in any "exotic foreign locale."

It's particularly irking that Anderson trys to show an awareness of his characters own ethnocentricity, but fails to recognize the films'. His characters expect to go to a far-away land and have a life-changing experience, though they make no effort to really experience India beyond their luxury train compartment. Anderson points that out as when Owen Wilson deadpans, "These people are beautiful, I love them," apparently oblivious to the fact that a group of Indian men are laughing at him. So the film is actually about people going away to a far-away land and NOT having a life changing experience. Though the storyline is flipped from a traditionally orientalist one, the underlying problem hasn't changed. India remains a mere tool for the characters' revelation, or lack thereof.

Anyway, the film definitely looks beautiful, i'll give it that. And i think one line get's it right, when Adrien Brody says that he love India's "spicy" smell. Word. Despite that and the hot train attendent lady, i can't recommend this one.