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List Price: $14.98 | | Label: 20th Century Fox
Salesrank: 989
Released: February 26, 2008 |
| Our Price: $7.00 |
| Used Price: $2.64 |
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MPAA Rating: R (Restricted)
Media: DVD |
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Editorial Review:
Owen Wilson, Adrien Brody, and Jason Schwartzman star as three brothers who have drifted apart over the years and try to re-forge their sibling bonds on a hilarious adventure across India. The Royal Tennenbaums meets Lost in Translation.
Description of The Darjeeling Limited:
Family tension again provides dramatic comedy in Wes Anderson's new film, The Darjeeling Limited, about three American brothers traveling by train to find their reclusive mother in rural India. Like Royal Tenenbaums, this film succeeds because of its smart, funny script in addition to the visual beauty of India and its luxurious locomotive transportation. In Darjeeling, the oldest brother, Francis (Owen Wilson), blackmails his two younger siblings, Peter (Adrien Brody), and Jack (Jason Schwartzman), into traveling to a monastery where their mother, Patricia (Anjelica Huston), has been in hiding as a nun. Supposedly embarking on a spiritual quest, the three men reminisce about the recent death of their father, and the family's irreconcilable problems previous to their reunification. Though they do find Patricia, Francis, Peter, and Jack grow immensely from another brush with death, this time an Indian boy they try to rescue, giving the film an added conceptual depth that Anderson's previous films have been accused of lacking. Co-written by Roman Coppola (CQ), The Darjeeling Limited is a finely-tuned critique of American materialism, emotional vacuity, and our lack of spiritualism, presented in ironic twists and gorgeous cinematography and lighting recalling Altman's McCabe & Mrs. Miller. A lovely, poignant sequence occurs while the three brothers attend a traditional Indian funeral, and flash back to their father's one year prior. Moreover, the film's soundtrack culled from Satyajit Ray's films and vintage Kinks gives the film a timeless feel, removing it from the predictable indie rock scoring of independent releases. By far Anderson's best film thus far, The Darjeeling Limited offers a much-needed dose of cultural self-reflection, pillared against India's ever-evolving yet ancient religious backbone. --Trinie Dalton
Beyond The Darjeeling Limited
The Darjeeling Limited Soundtrack | 
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Stills from The Darjeeling Limited The Darjeeling Limited Reviews:
I couldn't decide if I liked this movie or not -- very unlikeable characters in amazing setting 
2009-12-15 - India was the star of this movie, at least for me -- the colors and vibrancy were amazing. It showed a side of India that are less often seen, particularly since much of the movie involves a long train trip, and most of the rest, an unplanned excursion in the desert (the area around Jaipur).
The story line involves three brothers, apparently wealthy, who don't get along. The father, we learn, is deceased, and the mother has vanished from their lives. The family is dysfunctional and the brothers aren't doing so well as individuals, either. The oldest, who tends to be very controlling, put together this trip as a time for spiritual renewal and healing for the family. They are to meet on a train, the Darjeeling Limited, to go visit their mother, who has moved to India. Their behavior is so bad that they are soon asked to leave the train, and then they meet up with some locals.
A couple of things bothered me, however. The first was the lack of subtlety -- all traits and messages were writ large, lest you miss them. The controlling nature of the oldest brother is broadly exaggerated (he takes the passports to make sure no-one loses them or leaves without his permission; in the dining car, without asking, he orders for each of them). The symbolism of the final scene (POSSIBLE SPOILER FOLLOWS.......................................................................................................they catch the train but leave all their expensive baggage behind them) is ridiculously obvious -- what we're supposed to see as the personal growth that these horrible brothers experienced. That gets me to the part I liked least: how easy it was to dislike just about every character in this movie. For me, I need to like at least some of the characters!
Still, I think this is a movie worth watching, if for no other reason than the India setting.
The Darjeeling Limited 
2009-12-01 - A delightful and entertaing film with all types of humor to satisfy any audiance. Moving and depicting the rich history of India and its rich heritage. Will keep you interested for many hours.
A strong addition to a full body of work
2009-07-12 - This movie feels no different than any other Wes Anderson film - it has Owen Wilson and Bill Murray and Anjelica Huston in it - and yet, there's something different. What is it that is not quite the same? Is it the fact that the film is set in India, that his cast of characters now includes Adrian Brody, or that it's finally been made clear that all the films are intended to run together? There's nothing in the films any more that can be separated from one another, and maybe that's a good thing - aren't Nobel prizes granted for a cohesive body of work, rather than a single masterpiece? Non sequitar dialogue, non sequitar scenery, the trademark drift around the location, and the subtle (but hilarious) sight gags - in this one, our protagonists inexplicably buy a cobra at market. This one has the heavily mustachioed Jason Schwartzman, an actor I don't know but have enjoyed in this film; he also helped to write the screenplay, indicating that he's entered the troupe (maybe he's been in it for a while and I'm only noticing now...). Flashback scenes where he is clean shaven are interesting for contrast, as is the "play before the movie" sequence with him and Nathalie Portman, playing a slutty something-or-other. The film strikes me as one of the more enjoyable Wes Anderson movies. I like it. Bill Murray's small, subtle role is great (some may consider it a mere sight gag), as is the Indian setting, as are the train staff, as are the villagers, as is the tiger. Go, tiger, go.
You have to identify with it!!
2009-07-05 - I can't believe I missed this movie somehow, since The Royal Tennenbaums has been a favorite for years (as was the TV series Arrested Development). My husband Tivoed Darjeeling Ltd last year, burned it to a dvd, and we finally just watched it. I'm a 59 year old woman who identified with Owen Wilson's oldest sibling character. I howled as I realized this movie was making fun of ME, as well as my two brothers. For those who give it one or two stars, you must have grown up in an ideal, non-dysfunctional household - lucky you. But for so many of us, this movie hit home and, while being hilarious, also brings back a lot of unwanted memories. I've ordered it from Amazon to get a "real" copy - can't wait to see it again, maybe with the younger brother I haven't seen in six years!
Entertaining on one viewing, but it's little more than Anderson's last two movies given a more exotic setting 
2009-06-23 - Wes Anderson's THE DARJEELING LIMITED has three brothers meeting up for a train journey through India after a year of not talking. The youngest Jack (Jason Schwartzman) is a budding writer and womanizer, Peter (Adrien Brody) is a married man intimidated by the prospect of children, and the eldest Francis (Owen Wilson) is a rich business recovering from a motorcycle accident. The three have been separated since the death of their father, and Francis wants them to rediscover their brotherly solidarity.
THE DARJEELING LIMITED, for all its "exotic" setting, is pretty similar to Anderson's previous films THE LIFE AQUATIC and THE ROYAL TENNENBAUMS with its story of a family that has long squabbled but which, after many trials and tribulations over the film, finds peace together in the end. Having seen all of Wilson's earlier output, I found THE DARJEELING LIMITED basically repeating a formula. It's an entertaining film to an extent, but Anderson is stuck in a rut. The treatment of India in the film sits uneasy with me. The train journey the brothers take is a fantasy, and the Indians the movie among are stereotypes with none given much of a personality (the two actors playing Indian train employees are in fact Westerners). At one point a village child dies, and it's almost appalling how Anderson uses this to advance the plot of the three brothers as if it were a mechanical action, with no sympathy to how the villagers around them would feel.
The cinematography is fairly elegant, and a few slapstick scenes drew a chuckle. Most memorable was a commentary on the trend well-known to travelers that, no matter how much it looks like you'll have a bus to yourself in the Third World, it will always been crammed full by the time it leaves. Still, I find RUSHMORE or THE ROYAL TENNENBAUMS to still be, almost a decade on, Wilson's strongest achievements.
