Review of The Darjeeling Limited (2007) by Jeff G — 11 May 2012

This is a film with depth that bears repeated watching. what I notice is that in the end the "affected" quality of it is more like realism. I think today we so much that is not real on the screen that we have a hard time recognizing reality when we see it. bear in mind, that when I say this, I recognize that the characters at some points engage in affected speech, but that is because this is their reality. This is tipped off by Wes Anderson, at the outset, in the small vignette, "Hotel Chalier" that precedes the film, where Jason Schwartzman queues up a cd shortly before his lover, Natalie Portman arrives. He then hits play right before opening the door for. "What's this music?" she asks. The answer is that the characters live in a life of affectation- which reflects their search for a lack of meaning. They would like some style, in music, and speech, in their lives, to color their lives and so they play these songs at the right moments, and speak with colorful language one would expect from a 40s film featuring hard-nosed reporters.

Also preceding the film, we see Bill Murray rushing to catch a train. It is the Darjeeling Limited. He is not fast enough, and so he does not catch the train, and he therefore does not get to be in the movie. This expands the theme of Hotel.

Chevalier. Life is a movie. If you aren't in the movie, you don't exist. The genius is in having Murray, a person you expect to see more of, then become nothing with the universe (so to speak).

All of this ties well to the specious notion that one can board a train in India and find himself. Again, the three brothers are rather artificially seeking meaning in their lives and there is a real question as to whether they can find it, or even reconcile the differences among themselves. Like the affectations above, the search in India, for meaning, is a an artifice, which all movies are.

The bottom line is that if you call this film "affected" you miss the point.