Review of The Darjeeling Limited (2007) by Moe J — 26 Jun 2012

I like Wes Anderson. I was a fan of "Moonrise Kingdom" and loved "The Fantastic Mr. Fox". I find the camera-work in his movies to be quite good and I love his quirky, oddball sense of humor. This is why I was hoping I'd enjoy "The Darjeeling Limited". I'm sad to say that it's a bit of a disappointment.

It's got a great cast, with Adrien Brody, Owen Wilson, and Jason Schwartzman playing brothers. It's been a year since they've spoken to each other, having seen each other last at their father's funeral. They have reunited in order to get to know each other and learn to love and trust each other while on a train that's going across India.

Throughout the film, there are some really nice shots of India and I loved some of the camera shots in the film. There are some nice dramatic moments in the film, but throughout the film, I was wondering to myself: Is this film a comedy?

If "The Darjeeling Limited" isn't a comedy, then it's pretty interesting, if not a little weird, and it harbors some pretty good performances. If it is a comedy, it's still kind of interesting and weird and has good performances, but on the other hand, I guess it fails as a comedy. The purpose of a comedy is to make people laugh and I didn't really find myself laughing a whole lot. I think that it's sort of a bad sign when you can't tell what a movie's trying to be.

I'm not saying that I disliked the film. There were a couple of bizarre, quirky moments that I found amusing and I liked some of the scenery and camera-work. However, I wish that it was clearer on what it was trying to be: a comedy or a drama.