It's taken me a while to decide if this was a good film or a great one. Sometimes it's not obvious on the first watching, and having seen it only once, I might have to reserve judgment. The thing is, I know that, as in other Wes Anderson films, there are hundreds of hidden gems of self-reference throughout and on more watchings they will reveal themselves. I also absolutely love his absurdity. His unspoken jokes are the very best ones.
That said, I also think I finally understand (and agree) when people say that Wes Anderson can be self-indulgent and overly whimsical. Ebert called it "terminal whimsy" at one point, but I am not sure I would go that far. I don't think Ebert is alone, though, The Life Aquatic lost a lot of people who had loved his earlier movies. (I actually loved that movie, but I think it was Bill Murray who carried me through.)
In this case, the whimsy is everywhere - the train itself is a whimsical notion. The luggage (literally the brothers' baggage -- seems like an easy joke, but the design and number of those bags makes the joke work perfectly) was whimsical. It was all well done and I was quite happy to go along the whimsical ride.
We got an email before we went to the movie from Gibson saying we were supposed to watch Hotel Chevalier, a short film about one of the characters, before we see the film, but neither Jon nor I had time to watch it beforehand. At the theater, before Darjeeling Limited played, there was a trailer asking you to watch Hotel Chevalier and it showed the website. We watched it the next morning and I just don't think it added anything to the other movie, so I question why he connected them so prominently. I mean, it's a fine little peek through the keyhole at the one brother's back stories, but it might go back to that self-indulgence thing again. It's OK. At least it was short.
The casting in this movie was brilliant. I love that Bill Murray was there. I loved Adrian Brody. I kept thinking about Owen Wilsons' suicide attempt, which was distracting. Angelica Houston was perfect. As long as Anderson keeps making movies with his friends in them, I will go see them.
2 comments:
I agree with your conclusion that this one was hard to make a conclusion about. It was thoroughly entertaining to watch, albeit not earth shattering in any way. Gibson and I were both wondering about the purpose of the "pre-movie" movie as well; it almost seemed like more of a marketing technique than anything that could truly influence the film. Maybe if we knew that Natalie Portman was involved in it we would like the film more?? Who knows.
Thanks for the thoughtful insights. Very fun to read, as always.
Ellen
Fun movie. I love dark humor and this is full of it. Some of the best laughs are during the most depressing moments. Maybe that's just me? I really liked Hotel Chevalier, but I agree it didn't really add much to the film. I love the music in Wes Anderson films. He just seems to choose great songs and make them even better by playing them during key moments in his films.
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