Rushmore made me a huge Wes Anderson fan. I rushed out to see Royal Tannenbaums and loved it. Although Life Aquatic had some cool moments, I left that movie feeling pretty deflated. But okay, all directors are allowed slip-ups. When I saw the preview for Darjeeling I got really excited, and couldn't wait to see it. Unfortunately, it's another big disappointment. All of Anderson's great visuals are there, and it's eye candy just like his other films. But, the film is really about very little; and anything it is about is not of great substance or original. This is a great shame as his early films really managed to fuse style and substance in a unique way. I hope this great director finds his course again. I so wanted this film to work, and it just fell flat. I was bored ten minutes in. Owen Wilson doing Owen Wilson got irritating, and as much as I love Jason Schwartzman and Adrien Brody, they didn't show more than about 3 expressions through the movie. I'm sure there are many die-hard Wes Anderson fans out there who will rave about the brilliance of this film, but if they're honest with themselves, they'll admit it's time for Wes to come up with something really new.
Review of The Darjeeling Limited
