Now this was a strange one. I went to see this at the movies when it came out, full of fanboy exuberance, and really did not care for it much at all. I re-watched it on dvd and it was like watching a different movie. I utterly loved it! I can’t really explain the drastic differences in my opinion from first watch to second, other than assuming certain mitigating factors coloured my judgement the first time around.
For starters I am a big Wes Anderson fan. Rushmore sits in or around my top 10 of all time, and The Royal Tenenbaums and The Life Aquatic were both complete and utter joy. As a 33 year old I have never grown out of that Christmas Day Syndrome, whereby I build up something I’m looking forward to, to the point of overexcitement – be it a band (Framtid) or movie (Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull). Then either rabid enthusiasm or crushing disappointment ensues.
Secondly, my enjoyment the first time around was dulled by cinema idiots. The kind of art house douche that is at pains to illustrate how much they ‘get’ the film more than anyone else. The ‘fake art-house laugh’™ is almost as nerve grating as the drink slurping, sweet rustling multiplex cattle. In this instance a middle aged hippy woman, sat next to me, drinking a herbal tea and laughing out loud at a light switch being turned on! That’s not a ‘joke’. Laughing at something no one else is laughing at doesn’t mean you’re understanding the movie on a deeper level, it means you’re a cretin.
Anyway, Wes Anderson’s fifth movie concerns 3 brothers, reunited in India, a year after the death of their father. Taking a journey on the eponymous train, the goal is to connect again as brothers and (like all good backpackers in India) ‘find themselves’.
The movie kicks off with a self contained ‘part one’ – Hotel Chevalier. This focuses on Jason Schwartzman and his ex-girlfriend Natalie Portman. There’s a large amount of mystery over precisely what happened/is happening between them. What makes it cool is that the full back story is clearly there – but as the audience you’re only a party to a portion of it. It doesn’t feel like its ambiguity is contrived, or that it was written with the intent to confuse or simply for the sake of being enigmatic. Moreover, watching it feels like you’re scratching the surface of a fleshed out relationship between the two characters, but you only need this snippet of their typical interaction in order to better understand the events in ‘part 2’.
The movie (and train) moves ahead, charting their story in a typically styled Wes Anderson universe. The story and its little touches excel, like the camera exploring the train in much the same way as the boat was investigated in The Life Aquatic. The soundtrack, as much a part of the movie as it would be in a Scorsese or Tarantino flick. A cameo from an Anderson favourite. And the successful mix of genuinely funny humour and pathos.
Watching the Darjeeling Limited again, bereft of all baggage (unlike the brothers and their matching luggage) I enjoyed it thoroughly. Superb.
IMBD: THE DARJEELING LIMITED
