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The Darjeeling Limited

The Darjeeling Limited - Trailer

Posted Jul 31, 2007

Three brothers re-forge family bonds on a train ride across the vibrant and sensual landscape of India, following the death of their father.

2007
Directed by: Wes Anderson

Cast:
Owen Wilson - Francis
Adrian Brody - Peter
Jason Schwartzman - Jack
Amara Karan - Rita
Bill Murray - The Businessman
Natalie Portman - Jack’s X-girlfriend


The Darjeeling Limited is in a nutshell, a roadtrip movie. Like all road trip movies it follows that there are passengers, there is a destination and everyone learns something valuable along the way. This time three brothers meet each other for a spiritual journey of sorts put together by the oldest; Francis(Owen Wilson), who assumes a motherly role over the other two - Jack, a womanizer played by Jason Schwartzman and the other, Peter, who is much of a mystery as he doesn’t divulge much in the way of character beyond the fact that his wife is going to give birth very soon. Francis has brought them all together to bond and see spiritual sites in India. They travel on the Darjeeling Limited (hence the name).
In the beginning all the brothers are mistrusting of each other. Along the journey the two young brothers go along with the older one’s dictating and incessant planning but eventually they turn on each other and a fight on the train ensues. They are promptly kicked off; dropped off in the middle of nowhere. Just when it seems like their spiritual journey has come to an end does it really truly begin.
To its credit the Darjeeling Limited does a good job of portraying the closeness and strain that is brotherhood. Unfortunately it doesn’t seem to end. Just about the time when you feel the story should have ended there is a flashback and the story is catapulted into a different direction.
There are a few comedic moments and without this would make for a dry tale. In the beginning Bill Murray makes a guest appearance. He is passed up by Adrian Brody as they try to catch the train. I don’t know if this is symbolic but it sure seemed so to me. More symbolism is at the end when all the film’s characters are shown, each in a train compartment that alludes to their current place in life. It is a creative piece of work but one can’t help but wonder if the film is trying to hard to make its point.
2 ½ stars

Lars and the Real Girl

2007
Directed by: Craig Gillespie

Cast:
Ryan Gosling - Lars Lindstrum
Emily Mortimer - Karin
Paul Schneider - Gus
Kelli Garner - Margo

Seldom do you find a movie that deals with a taboo subject (a full-sized-toy-sex-doll) and also a mental illness so delicately and with such good taste as in Lars and the Real Girl. Lars lives alone and besides his co-workers and older brother, he has no on e close to him. That is until he orders his new girlfriend, Bianca. His brothers and wife are understandably shocked as is the rest of the town. However gradually, with the urging of the family doctor the family and the town learns to accept Lars and his “girlfriend.” Everyone joins in treating Bianca like she is real (she gets elected to the school board) and you can’t help wonder if the whole town is delusional as well.
It is doubtful that this story could have been told anywhere other than Hollywood. Throughout the story you are just waiting for his delusion to break or for a confrontation to occur where someone tells him that his girlfriend has more silicone than Pamela Anderson - but this never happens, nor does it need to.
The actors for their part play their roles well and with a genuineness that is believable. The cinematography is simple and to the point which is good since it fits well with this uncomplicated and unorthodox tale.
3 stars

The Andromeda Strain

1971
Directed by:
Robert Wise

Based on the novel by Michael Crichton

Cast:
Arthur Hill - Dr. Jeremy Stone
David Wayne - Dr. Charles Dutton
James Olson - Dr. Mark Hall
Kate Reid - Dr. Ruth Leavit


Robert Wise of The Sound of Music renown has set his sights on science fiction in this adaptation of a popular novel to the silver-screen. As in both instances an alien entity threatens life on earth and a select group must disarm it at the expense of great personal risk. This time a seemingly harmless satellite has crashed to earth in the remote New Mexico Desert. A military team is sent to retrieve the item which is currently (and remarkably unscathed) near a very small quiet town. But the town is abnormally too quiet - even for the dead of night. Before the team knows what has hit them all radio contact is lost and they are presumed dead. A flyby later confirms that the entire town has literally stopped in its tracks. People are lying around everywhere like it is the morning after New Years. But no signs of celebration are to be found.
A select team of scientists and a doctor is called in. “Wildfire” has been declared which is what we learn to be code for a potentially dangerous bio-hazardous situation posed by an unknown or alien biological agent. This picture was made during the time of the first lunar landings so contamination from a possibly alien and even totally unstoppable pathogen from space or the moon was a real concern. It is much like our modern fear of terrorists using biological weapons.
In any case, the team is called to a secret installation in the Nevada desert built specifically for containing and studying such hostile alien germs. There are rumors that this secret base was built for the possible use and development of alien germs to be used in bio-warfare - though unfortunately this isn’t expounded upon in the movie.
In addition to the satellite the only two survivors of the towns catastrophe are brought to the base to study why they survived. The rest of the movie entails trying to figure out what the “andromeda strain” is.
The Andromeda Strain is a movie that is heavy on set and a little short on story. Through our tour of the facility, which follows the team’s sanitization process we learn more about the base than the actual characters who seem shallow and stereotyped. This unfortunately is what happens when too many novels are put into screen adaptations. Don’t get me wrong, the set is important - and this one is masterfully created but in this case the characters are sacrificed for the plot. This film unfortunately falls like so many from the habit of overemphasizing special effects and set for story. Spiderman III (though not based on a novel) is an example of this but other movies like the Harry Potter series seem to do a good job of balancing both.

2 stars

Breathless

1960

Directed by Jean-Luc Godard

Michael - Jean-Paul Belmondo
Patricia - Jean Seberg

From the very beginning we find out that Breathless isn’t your ordinary film. To start out with the picture opens up close-ups on the main character. There is no sound to begin with and even later it is only gradually introduced. In addition the actor talks directly to the camera and throughout the film there are jump-cuts (visibly cut action) at places (during dialogue) when jump cuts are most noticeable. It is a well known unwritten rule that there aren’t supposed to be any discernable jump cuts in a film at all.
All things considered, starting out watching Breathless one might think that this film was put together by a novice. Though this is Godard’s first feature film, it is not a novice act at all in that it was all done very deliberately. In order to break away and revitalize the stagnant French film industry Godard and a group of other French filmmakers took it upon themselves to create films in a whole new way; with improvised dialogue, handheld cameras and deconstructed narratives. This movement was termed The French New Wave or “La Nouvelle Vague” and it gained an audience around the world.
Like many “New Wave” movies Breathless concerns itself with modern life and in particular with the lives of two young parisians: Patricia, a young woman who sells the New York Herald-Tribune and Michael, an opportunistic player and thief running from the law.
They may both be young and (questionably) in love with each other but they are different in important ways. Patricia is attracted to the risky and carefree lifestyle that Michael embodies yet underneath it she has aspirations of her own. Michael doesn’t have any discernable aspirations, besides going to Italy, presumably to run from the Law. He pressures her to join him in a style in which I can only compare to Marlon Brando. This scene takes up a good portion of the movie, and though being a tad overdrawn, it gives us time to see both characters as they truly are.
The questions in the viewers mind are: 1) is Patricia truly in Love with Michael & 2) Will she turn him in? We know that Michael is morally corrupt but it is Patricia’s moral ambiguity that keeps us watching.
I must admit that Breathless has a different feel to it than any other movie I have watched. With its own seemingly happenchance editing it could have been a disastrous movie yet its themes of love and morality keep it afloat. I would recommend Breathless to anyone who wants a “breath” of fresh air; to know that all films don’t have to follow a Hollywood-cookie cutter format and be successful.
3 stars