Skip to content
Dom Robinson reviews
- Cert:
- Cat.no: 3627801000
- Running time: 88 minutes
- Year: 2007
- Pressing: 2008
- Region(s): 2, PAL
- Chapters: 24 plus extras
- Sound: Dolby Digital 5.1
- Languages: English
- Subtitles: English for the hearing impaired, Swedish
- Widescreen: 2.35:1
- 16:9-Enhanced: Yes
- Macrovision: Yes
- Disc Format: DVD 9
- Price: £19.99
- Extras: The Darjeeling Limited Walking Tour’ making of documentary, Short film: Hotel Chevalier, Trailers
- Vote and comment on this film:
Director:
- Wes Anderson
(Bottle Rocket, The Darjeeling Limited, The Fantastic Mr Fox, The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, The Royal Tenenbaums, Rushmore)
Producer:
- Wes Anderson, Roman Coppola, Lydia Dean Pilcher and Scott Rudin
Screenplay:
- Wes Anderson, Roman Coppola and Jason Schwartzman
Cast :
- Peter L. Whitman: Adrien Brody
Jack L. Whitman: Jason Schwartzman
Francis L. Whitman: Owen Wilson
Rita: Amara Karan
Brendan: Wallace Wolodarsky
Chief Steward: Waris Ahluwalia
The Father: Irfan Khan
The Mechanic: Barbet Schroeder
Alice: Camilla Rutherford
The Businessman: Bill Murray
Patricia: Anjelica Huston
Jack’s X-Girlfriend: Natalie Portman
The Darjeeling Limitedis a train, but not just any train… Well, it is really.
However, in the case of this film it’s the main setting for Wes Anderson’s latest film, and like his previous work,The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou, the set is another strokeof genius, with the camera panning around as we see a cut-through version of various compartments, and we go from room toroom sometimes, particularly in one scene where it’s used incredibly well. This makes the whole thing come across less afilm and more like a play, acted out on a massive set. And the featurettes points out how it’s easily taken apart andput back together to suit.
The three are brothers going on an important journey, following the death of their father. We start as Peter Whitman (AdrienBrody) boards the train while it’s picking up a good pace on the way out of the station, on which he meets up withthe other two, first Jack (Jason Schwartzman) and then Francis (Owen Wilson), had a motorbike accident priorto this trip. The latter is very controlling about which direction the journey should take, and all the stops they shouldmake along the way. He’s also upset by the fact that he thinks Peter has effectively commandeered some of their late father’spossessions such as the man’s glasses and his car keys.
Jack is the more laidback of the three, but they all have pieces of their story that would be unfair to divulge here as youfind all these things out while watching it.
As the train rolls on, they start falling out over little things that amount to not really being able to trust each other,despite Francis wanting this to be a spiritual and life-changing experience for them all as they haven’t really spent muchtime together over the years. Their ultimate goal for this is to meet their mother, who they also haven’t seen for some timeand has become a nun in a remote community. She’s not earning any real money, but the fact she can help people is all sheneeds.
Overall, The Darjeeling Limited isn’t as great as ‘Aquatic’ but that’s because there’s not as much going on. However,it’s still an essential film to see and there’s fantastic performances throughout from Brody and Schwartzman. Great supportcomes from train hostess Rita (Amara Karan) and there’s a nice cameo early on from Bill Murray as a businessman.Credit also goes to Natalie Portman who plays Jack’s ex-girlfriend in a pre-movie short entitled, HotelChevalier. This is a necessary part of the whole thing and I understand was played in cinemas prior to the mainfeature.
When it comes to this movie being screened on TV, I hope they don’t use the end credits at the end of that 12-minute partas a chance to waffle over it! Especially since it uses Peter Sarstedt’s classic song, “Where Do You Go To My Lovely?”and that’s such a guilty pleasure.
For me, the only weak link in the chain is Owen Wilson. I’ve really no idea where his star quality is. He’s in somany things and just contributes the same slack-jawed-sounding drifter character.
However, if you’re a fan of Jason Schwartzman and Adrien Brody, then they appeared on Breakfast in November 2007 to talkabout the movieand the interview can be seen here.
There’s brilliant direction from Wes Anderson, with perfect use of the full 2.35:1 frame, as before with ‘Aquatic’, which isto date the only other film of his that I’ve seen and that was wonderful, so I really must check out Rushmore andThe Royal Tenanbaums. The picture is perfect throughout and the Dolby Digital 5.1 sound is flawless, creating anauthentic atmosphere (but it’s not a special FX piece, hence why it’s not getting 5/5). It’s worth noting as well that there’sno DD5.1 soundtrack on the Hotel Chevalier opener.
The only real extra, as such, is a featurette, The Darjeeling Limited Walking Tour (21:19), in which ProductionDesign guy Mark Friedberg introduces us to the train in the movie and how it’s all put together, starting with Peter getting onto it while at speed. The attention to design throughout the train is phenomenal and there’s also manyaspects to this piece which will give spoilers if you haven’t yet seen film so I won’t comment too much about thecontents here. However, I will say that there’s one scene involving a plane that you don’t physically see, and untilI got to this featurette it completely escaped me that I hadn’t seen the plane! 🙂
By the way, there are some additional Fox trailers (none of this movie, sadly), which are for the new DVDs: Rescue Dawn,The Savages and Scorsese’s new Rolling Stones film in the cinema, Shine a Light. Thankfully, Fox have now seensense and added these to the extras menu and not put them before the DVD begins (like an old rental video). This is whatI have been campaigning for, for a long time, and I’m glad that it’s finally paid off.
The film contains 24 chapters, subtitles are available in English for the hearing-impaired and the main menu is animatedand scored with a looped piece of music from the film. If anything lets the package down as a whole it’s the scarcity ofsupplemental material, so I’d advise a rental on this title first.
PICTURE QUALITY
SOUND QUALITY
EXTRAS
OVERALL
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.