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Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1857 in DVD
• Released on: 2008-04-07
• Rating: Suitable for 15 years and over
• Format: PAL
• Original language: English
• Subtitled in: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 88 minutes

Amazon.co.uk Review
Family tension again provides dramatic comedy in Wes Anderson's new film, The Darjeeling Limited, about three American brothers travelling by train to find their reclusive mother in rural India. Like The Royal Tenenbaums, this film succeeds because of its smart, funny script in addition to the visual beauty of India and its luxurious locomotive transportation. In Darjeeling, the oldest brother, Francis (Owen Wilson), blackmails his two younger siblings, Peter (Adrien Brody), and Jack (Jason Schwartzman), into travelling to a monastery where their mother, Patricia (Anjelica Huston), has been in hiding as a nun. Supposedly embarking on a spiritual quest, the three men reminisce about the recent death of their father, and the family's irreconcilable problems previous to their reunification. Though they do find Patricia, Francis, Peter, and Jack grow immensely from another brush with death, this time an Indian boy they try to rescue, giving the film an added conceptual depth that Anderson's previous films have been accused of lacking.

Co-written by Roman Coppola, The Darjeeling Limited is a finely-tuned critique of American materialism, emotional vacuity, and lack of spiritualism, presented in ironic twists and gorgeous cinematography and lighting recalling Altman's McCabe & Mrs. Miller. A lovely, poignant sequence occurs while the three brothers attend a traditional Indian funeral, and flash back to their father's one year prior. Moreover, the film's soundtrack culled from Satyajit Ray's films and vintage Kinks gives the film a timeless feel, removing it from the predictable indie rock scoring of independent releases. By far Anderson's best film thus far, The Darjeeling Limited offers a much-needed dose of cultural self-reflection, pillared against India's ever-evolving yet ancient religious backbone. --Trinie Dalton, Amazon.com

Synopsis
Wes Anderson, the creator of RUSHMORE and THE ROYAL TENENBAUMS, offers another quirky, melancholic riff on familial ties and father issues in THE DARJEELING LIMITED. Francis (Owen Wilson) has invited his brothers, Jack (Jason Schwartzman) and Peter (Adrien Brody), to join him on a train trip for a spiritual quest through India. The brothers have been estranged since their father's sudden death, and each is now embroiled in his own personal drama. Jack is being toyed with by his two-timing girlfriend, Peter's wife is about to give birth, and Francis recently survived a car crash that nearly killed him. As the train chugs its way across India, the brothers try to reconnect, but mainly end up arguing and sharing pharmaceuticals. Francis admits that the real reason he lured them there is because he wants them to visit their mother (Anjelica Huston), who is living in a convent in the Himalayas. Peter and Jack are none too pleased with this plan, and immediately want to go home. The trip hits another snag when they are kicked off the train for a series of offences. Stranded with their mountain of matching luggage, Peter and Jack are now insistent upon leaving. However, they suddenly find themselves brought together by a deadly accident involving some Indian children.
The film bears all of Anderson's trademark touches--stilted comedic dialogue, blunted emotions, and bizarre set pieces that pay subtle homage to the 1970s. Though the film is a bit quieter and less madcap than his previous work, it is still sure to delight his many fans.

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Customer Reviews

a trippy good time
It's almost guaranteed with a Wes Anderson film that you're in for a trippy good time, with more than a little melancholy to take the edge off. The Darjeeling Limited is no different. Three brothers (two reluctantly) set out on a journey of spiritual cleansing and sibling bonding as they travel through India.

The brothers (Owen Wilson, Adrian Brody & Jason Schwartzman) are still struggling with their father's untimely death a year prior and the subsequent emotional upheaval it left in its wake. Peter (Brody) is quiet and brooding, with a penchant for wearing his dead father's glasses, watch, you name it. Jack (Schwartzman), a writer, seems to be stuck writing the day of their father's funeral over & over again. And Francis (Wilson), the ringleader, is a total control freak who might, or might not, have driven his motorcycle into a mountain in a failed suicide attempt.

Sounds heavy, doesn't it?

Ah, but this is Wes Anderson. Where normally there would be Kramer Vs. Kramer melodrama, Anderson delivers something unbelievably funny and sublime. This is his calling card. And while some would say he's becoming something of a one-trick pony, I'd point out that many great directors pick a genre and stick with what they know; Hitchcock, Tarantino and Burton all come to mind.

While Wes Anderson films aren't for everyone - fans of fast-paced action will view his work as a form of slow torture, those who do get him are in for a treat. The Darjeeling Limited, with its tribute to the absurdity of the human condition, is just excellent.

The Most Underrated film of 2007.
Definitely the most underrated (perhaps, more appropriately, unknown) movie of 2007. The story of three brothers' journey to India for 'spiritual' purposes. The setting of the movie is breathtaking, the plot is funny, emotional and heart-warming. The acting is superb, Direction is excellent and the Soundtrack is perfect. The characters are well developed, they have wonderful, yet flawed personalities. Yet you can't help but love them! Sadly overlooked for Oscars, Baftas and Golden Globes, this is easily my favourite film of 2007, if not the Noughties so far.

Anderson excels
The Darjeeling Limited contains all the quirky elements that Wes Anderson fans know and love but there's something more here, too. This story has a greater emotional depth than his previous films and out of the usual dry humour and stylish set piece encounters emerges a subtle and ultimately rather moving story of acceptance and reconciliation.
The film opens with a wonderful scene in which a frantic businessman (Bill Murray) races for a train and is overtaken by a younger man (Adrien Brody) who passes him and leaps aboard as Murray slows to a resigned halt. Youth and age, hope and disappointment, the chance nature of existence; it's all here in a gorgeously filmed slow-motion sequence that entices us into an almost dreamlike readiness for the weird misadventures to follow.
The Whitman brothers (Brody and Jason Schwartzman) brought together by the eldest, Francis (Owen Wilson), haven't seen each other since the death of their father and Francis wants them to reconnect on a spiritual journey through India on a luxurious train (the eponymous Darjeeling Limited). Each brother is unhappy and dissatisfied in his own way and good karma is in short supply. There is bickering, suspicion and the petty accusations fly. When the brothers are thrown off the train (for harbouring a poisonous snake) they seem bound to go their seperate ways until they chance upon three boys whose raft has capsized in a swollen river. They save two but the third is killed. The brothers are welcomed into the boys' village and invited to attend the funeral.
Suddenly the bickering and angst is overtaken by a profound and respectful sadness and a burgeoning self-awareness and the rest of the brothers' journey is coloured by the impact of the boy's death and the memories it evokes of their father's funeral a year before.
The brothers continue to their journey's unlikely conclusion (featuring a lovely cameo from Angelica Huston as their mother) but there are plenty of questions left unanswered.
Really, though, the plot of The Darjeeling Limited is not the point. The colour, atmosphere and tone envelop us in a beautifully realized other world that feels both visually magical and emotionally real. Anderson's detractors always accuse him of having more style than substance but it is really a matter of where we look for the film's meaning. It may be light, daft in places and with barely a plot but the characters' journeys are real enough. The performances are terrific and the three leads spar beautifully together. Few other directors can match Anderson for visual flair and with its rich palette of Indian colours the film is a visual wonder. There is plenty of dry humour, too, and some laugh out loud moments. And though the tone remains bright there are moments so poignant and evocative that we sense the darker shadows behind all the brilliance.