the darjeeling limited

let me preface this by saying that i am a wes anderson fan...truly. i loved bottle rocket, rushmore, royal tenenbaums (my personal fav minus the suicide attempt scene). the life aquatic left me non-plussed and the latest the darjeeling limited left me less than non-plussed.

i dont know if it was because i couldnt believe the brotherhood of the three...the fact that adrien brody being very much jewish and owen wilson beign very much not and then jason schwartzman thrown in there as well...and not just ethnicity but the whole interactions of the three of them...i dont know. it could also be that as soon as they left the train the journey seemed very disconnected and rambling.

i didnt care about francis and his bandages, i didnt like peter, i didnt feel sorry for jack. i guess the emotional nakedness anderson was attempting to portray fell short on me. i have been amazed with brody in his past movies, so seeing him act in such a different manner seemed stunting to me. i felt like he was compromising his ability to fit into anderson's world and it didnt match up.

i love the stylizations of anderson and this movie is no exception. he definitely creates these worlds and new contexts for reason and new rules for characterization, but in the over-planning (much like the character francis himself...hmmm) he loses out on the depth.

what threw me over the edge is when at the end of the movie *spoiler* they visit their mother in a convent. everything surrounding their mother and father is very disconnected and piecemeal, so as an audience you want some answers, but they meet her and it is the cheesiest interaction in a movie ever. i felt cheated, like when you read a book or watch a movie and the author or director ends it by the main character waking up. cop-out. the whole - lets say it with our eyes and not with words and the way too long close ups of each of the characters - i didnt get it. i didnt feel it and it pissed me off.

anyway - i wouldnt recommend it if you could tell - there were a couple funny parts and not to mention the beautiful scenery and cinematography, but overall the world that anderson created was too shallow to allow for true emotions.