Recently saw The Darjeeling Limited. It seems that the director, Wes Anderson, is turning into a bit of a one-trick pony. The cinematography is to die for, as always, but once you get past that... You realize that the story is a rehash of any other movie he's done. Some say 'Ah, an auter has strong recognizable style!' and others counter this by saying 'But there's a difference between having a recognizable style and being formulaic.' This film put me squarely in the latter group.
It's like we've seen it all before. White people with family problems (but certainly not money problems) go through some semi-metaphorical journey and heal their broken relationships. The end. That's pretty much every Wes Anderson film to date. And what is it with non-white people always being used as foils for the main characters? I mean, I'm about as white as it gets, and if I'm noticing it, it's problematic to say the least. It gives the feeling "Oh hey, Man Friday is here to help you solve all your problems, and conveniently has none of his own to bother your film." Some might say that I'm only noticing it because I'm white and have White Guilt (TM), but I'd say that this goes beyond that to put it mildly.
In many ways, you feel like all of India is being trivialized as 'a nice place to go and see the funny natives and their strange ways'. I mean, one of the main characters sums up his experience about the country towards the end by saying "I love the way this country smells - kinda spicy." On some level, Wes Anderson makes fun of his characters not realizing that they're trivializing such things, but once you get past that, it's just trite. And still pretty damn offensive. One scene involves the three main characters attending an Indian funeral, and you get the sense that they're just attending a tourist attraction. They're here today and gone tomorrow, and none of this will really have any impact on them or how they live. Just some rich white folks breezing through, stopping by to gape at your quaint and curious customs. In the end, India is nothing more than an elaborate set piece, an excuse for a location rather than a reason for it, as the film could be set in any other quaint-to-Wes-Anderson country and not be a whit different.
Aside from controversial racial stereotyping, there's the nagging feeling of "Obviously none of these people have had to work a day in their life". At some level, it's nice to have characters that don't have to worry about money - I mean, a significant portion of film and literature is escapism from such things - but when it gets formulaic to the point where a Wes Anderson Plot (TM) can be described in a single phrase like the following; "Rich white people make some sort of semi-metaphorical journey to fix their screwed up relationships", it's noticeable and not in a good way.
This movie is nice enough to watch over some pizza and a few beers, but other than that? It has the depth of a goldfish bowl, borders on being pretentious and the even the best cinematography in the world can't hide the fact that the story is weak excuse for such. To sum it up in a single sentence? "Watchable, but a failure as a critical work."
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