BAM!

It has recently come to my attention that The Darjeeling Limited was, hun ha, limited in its release. I feel somewhat obliged under such circumstances to provide a review of said film. "That was so stupid!" How's that? Well that is what the lady next to me had to say about it at the film's conclusion. I disagree. Take Wes Anderson's staple ingredients; dysfunctional family relations, tainted love, self-referential cameo appearances, great cinematography, meditations on death and a smoking soundtrack, mix 'em all together set it in India and BAM! you have the Darjeeling Limited.

The DL scores in the upper end of Wes Anderson's movies. The characters are well portrayed. There is a pretty good dynamic between the brothers, played by Owen Wilson, Adrien Brody, and Jason Schwartzman. My appreciation for Owen Wilson has declined a bit after the various poor roles that he has played (and I haven't even watched most of them). However, the spot he dug out of my heart in Bottle Rocket allows me to give him plenty of second, third, and fourth chances. I really liked Adrien Brody, and thought him a good addition to the old Wes Anderson repertoire. Jason Scwartzman is great. Waris Ahluwalia is great. Kumar is great and so many others.

These days everyone's a DJ and let me tell you if Wes Anderson were DJing even I would be going out. His movies and soundtracks maintain a mutually elevating relationship that few other films employ so masterfully. His movies and soundtracks do to one another what a book based movie does to the your personal imagery from that book, but in a good way. The DL is no exception here. It features a beautiful soundtrack that is integrated wonderfully into the film.

Coupled with the movie's release is a short film titled, Hotel Chevalier, that is a prelude to DL. Get this, it's free to download through iTunes. You might have to access it through the website though so click the link above. Hopefully, you can get a taste of what you're missing to last you until it's eventual release in your respective locations.

One more friendly gesture from me to my unfortunate peeps in Utah, who have been deprived this masterpiece, is that there is a free screening of DL in SLC on Oct. 23. Look for the link on the DL web site to RSVP to reserve yourself a spot or two.