The Darjeeling Limited

This is a bit of a belated review, but I thought it was important that I post it, if only to save other people from watching this film.

Last Thursday night we went to the first night of Moonlight Cinema for the summer in Botanic Gardens. I got some tickets through work, and was looking forward to seeing "The Darjeeling Limited", the new film from Wes Anderson (The Royal Tennenbaums, The Life Aquatic).

We got there a little after 7pm with our take away Thai food. For me, this is one of the best things about Moonlight Cinema - even if the movie is completely crap, it's a nice excuse to eat great food in a picturesque location surrounded by pretentious yuppies (more on that later). I can't complain about the food, it was great quality. The only downside was that I ordered the Red Beef Curry, and Michella ordered some all-vegetable dish. And then wanted some of my meal too. It reminded me of how when you go to a party and they decide to order pizza, and everyone asks for all of these weird things, and you say you just want a bbq chicken one, and then when it comes everyone just eats your bbq chicken. I hate it when that happens.

Anyway, as we were eating dinner, we noticed a group of young people sitting across from us who looked like they were out at a day at the races. The girls in particular were all dressed up in summer dresses, despite the fact that in about an hour it was going to be freezing cold. There was a photographer for The Advertiser taking photos, and she spent quite a lot of time with this group, getting different combinations of them together. Once she finished up there she walked past us to the next group of people, and started taking their photo. I'm guessing we missed out because a) we were dressed appropriately for a movie in the open air late at night and/or b) we were stuffing our faces with Thai food.

Onto the actual film itself . . . it was preceded by a short movie starting Jason Schwartzman and Natalie Portman, playing two ex-lovers who meet again in a Paris hotel. It was kind of interesting, but nothing to write home about.

The main feature then commenced, with Jason reprising his character, playing the brother of Owen Wilson and Adrien Brody. The movie is basically about three brothers who go on a train journey across India, to "find themselves" or something like that, following the death of their father.

I was talking to Mirjana today who told me that the luggage they all carry throughout the film is meant to signify the baggage we all carry through our lives. That kind of explains the pseudo-depth they're aiming for with this. Mainly I found it boring. There were a few good Owen Wilson lines, but overall it was more of the same from the director - if you've seen any of his last few movies you know what to expect. Lots of quirkly dialogue, deadpan delivery, awkward silences, that kind of thing. I kind of enjoyed it for a while but two hours was way too much. Michella said she liked it but she fell asleep about an hour in so I don't think that really counts.