The Darjeeling Limited Review

The first reason why this movie is one of my favourites is because I love Wes Anderson’s style of filming. I don’t think there is nor ever was a director who chose the arrangement and design of his shots more precisely. Almost every frame in this movie reminded me of a painting, due to the combination of colours and the positioning. The colours used were mainly rich and bright, such as yellow, green, blue and red, which gave extra energy to the lively scenes of the film.

Despite of its light-hearted appearance The Darjeeling Limited is about a complicated, touching family story. The main characters are three brothers who went on a spiritual journey to rebuild the bonds between each other and find their mother who abandoned them. All these struggles were the consequences of their father’s death. It is a tale of love, trust and pain that is felt by those with no family to support them.  Such deep topics contrast greatly with the visual appearance of the film, so the resultant humour is entertaining and makes Anderson’s messages very memorable. Being a man for whom a family is in priority, I was interested in the events and lessons of the story.

And of course it was a perfect cast that made the movie so personal and remembering. Owen Wilson, Adrien Brody and Jason Schwartzman made a good job playing the brothers. Selection of the secondary actors was as successful, with Bill Murray and Anjelica Huston in two biggest supporting roles. These players, although very relaxed in their appearances, portrayed a long list of emotions over the two hours duration and made each character alive.

The majority of filming took part in Rajasthan, India, to capture the Asian landscapes and the according architecture. However, a lot of the scenes were shot in the studios of the Long Island, including all the actions inside the train and the flashbacks of the brothers’ past. 

So factors of the accurate work done by the director and the designer, the unusual storyline with intelligent dialogues and the talented cast make The Darjeeling Limited a true masterpiece and the second best Anderson’s movie (The Grand Budapest Hotel is still in the lead).