The Darjeeling Limited

C+

I had a free movie pass and was afraid to go see No Country for Old Men. So I wound up seing The Darjeeling Limited, maybe the day before it left theaters. Probably the most notable thing about this movie is that Owen Wilson played a guy who survived a suicide attempt and it was released around the time he survived his real-life suicide attempt.

The movie is practically a sequel to The Royal Tenenbaums except they couldn't get Luke Wilson, Ben Stiller, and Gwyneth Paltrow back, so they just changed the characters around. This time Wes Anderson isn't trying for laughs as much and instead focuses on three brothers who take a train trip through India to reconnect with each other and spiritually. It has a certain Razor's Edge quality to it though not as artsy as that.

The movie seems to drag on forever with lots of lingering camera shots without dialogue. I didn't think it was necessarily boring, but it was really close. Even with the short film Part 1 that features Natalie Portman in a gratuitous PG-rated nude scene, the movie comes in under 2 hours.

Given how the movie doesn't particularly develop its characters, has very little plot, and isn't very funny, I can't give this more than a C+. However if you like indie movies, this isn't a bad one to watch. And if you liked Wes Anderson's earlier works like The Royal Tenenbaums and Rushmore, you will probably like this.

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