the darjeeling ltd.

fortunately, wes anderson's trademark aesthetic is a pleasing one. unfortunately, while watching darjeeling, i had the feeling that this was wes's way of waving his hands high in the air and screaming to his father "look what i can do!", a sentiment all too appropriate (yet still very annoying) for a film about three brothers traveling together following their father's death. the cuts and shots were all overplayed and trite in that anderson sort of way; it felt like him paying homage to himself (trademark actor cameos, to boot). instead of having a story and choosing the best edits and camera angles to go along with it, this film had an overarching feeling of those being pre-selected and the story being molded around them.

while that bothered me, my biggest problem was the lack of sentiment. whenever i think about wes anderson, the first definitive-idea of him that comes to mind is his aesthetic, but when i really think hard about it i really love his blunt, brutally honest, surreal character interactions. while sometimes he is a bit too quirky, in general it is his fantastic characterization that really makes me fall in love with him. yes, the crickets and the dust beetles line is the first i think of when asked to name a royal t. quote, but the film could have survived without that and been just as good; it could not have survived without the numerous hyperbolized every day family conversations. it's a people story. this film--a film about three brothers on a journey--was ripe for that sort of thing, yet somehow it completely missed it. there are two lines in the entire film that get it right: schwartzman leaving the train and talking to the train stewardess, and schwartzman referencing hotel chevalier, which wouldn't even fully make sense if you hadn't seen the short.

basically, this film is like when your favorite, prolific band comes out with a greatest hits cd of all their most popular songs instead of the ones that both they and you like best. ya--it's great to have all of their singles on one disc, but wouldn't you rather listen to joshuah tree or the unforgettable fire instead of best of 1980-1990 any day of the week?