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Darjeeling Limited, The
Fox Searchlight Pictures


7.0

based on 35 reviews
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based on 94 votes
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FILM:

MPAA RATING: R for language

Starring Owen Wilson, Adrien Brody, Jason Schwartzman, Amara Karan, Natalie Portman, Bill Murray, Irfan Khan, and Anjelica Huston

Three American brothers who have not spoken to each other in a year set off on a train voyage across India with a plan to find themselves and bond with each other -- to become brothers again like they used to be. Their "spiritual quest", however, veers rapidly off-course (due to events involving over-the-counter pain killers, Indian cough syrup, and pepper spray), and they eventually find themselves stranded alone in the middle of the desert with eleven suitcases, a printer, and a laminating machine. At this moment, a new, unplanned journey suddenly begins. (Fox Searchlight)

GENRE(S):	Adventure \| Comedy \| Drama
WRITTEN BY:	Jason Schwartzman Roman Coppola Wes Anderson
DIRECTED BY:	Wes Anderson
RELEASE DATE:	DVD: February 26, 2008 Theatrical: September 29, 2007
RUNNING TIME:	91 minutes, Color
ORIGIN:	USA

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

100

Premiere Glenn Kenny

A picture that certain Brits and connoisseurs of British colloquial English might call "a grower" … more moving and funny the more I think about it.

Rolling Stone Peter Travers

All the acting is exemplary. Brody, new to Wes' World, is revelatory as Peter.

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

Anderson is like Dave Brubeck, who I'm listening to right now. He knows every note of the original song, but the fun and genius come in the way he noodles around. And in his movie's cast, especially with Owen Wilson, Anderson takes advantage of champion noodlers.

Entertainment Weekly Lisa Schwarzbaum

This is familiar psychological as well as stylistic territory for Anderson after "Rushmore" and "The Royal Tenenbaums." But there's a startling new maturity in Darjeeling, a compassion for the larger world that busts the confines of the filmmaker's miniaturist instincts.

The New York Times A.O. Scott

The Darjeeling Limited amounts finally to a high-end, high-toned tourist adventure. I don’t mean this dismissively; it would be hypocritical of me to deny the delights of luxury travel to faraway lands. And Mr. Anderson’s eye for local color — the red-orange-yellow end of the spectrum in particular — is meticulous and admiring.

Salon.com Stephanie Zacharek

This tale of filial love and family baggage is Wes Anderson's most heartfelt feature film yet. Its companion short, "Hotel Chevalier," is darn near perfect.

Los Angeles Times Carina Chocano

The India of the movie is more an idea than a reality...Exotic, spiritual and, according to Peter Whitman (Adrien Brody), "spicy"-smelling, it's a magical mystery place where wayward foreigners can go to get their souls back on track.

Chicago Reader Jonathan Rosenbaum

What this movie has going for itself in spite of its cloying pleas for indulgence is a playful and interesting narrative structure that precludes much development and comes to the fore only toward the end. The whole thing may drive you batty, but as with "Rushmore," the melancholy aftertaste lingers.

Empire Angie Errigo

Funny peculiar and funny ha ha, with a spontaneity and energy that gather up a powerful emotional head of steam as it chugs along.

Portland Oregonian Shawn Levy

By now, you know exactly what to expect, which is both good and bad. To my mind, Anderson reached the acme of this formula in the first go, in "Tenenbaums," and has now replicated it twice, evoking smaller pleasures each time.

Philadelphia Inquirer Carrie Rickey

A movie about people who literally carry a lot of emotional baggage, metaphorically unpack it, and spiritually lighten their loads. By the end, I felt lighter. Which is closer to enlightenment than most movies get.

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Rick Groen

As always with Anderson, the comedy is neatly embedded in the jaded banter, where the insecurities and rivalries bubble up -- here, all within the bell jar of that shared sleeping compartment.

Chicago Tribune Michael Phillips

Spiritual journeys, even if they’re comedies, don’t really lend themselves to the extreme, anal-retentive formalism found in every frame of The Darjeeling Limited.

USA Today Claudia Puig

A spiritual quest can take many forms. One could argue that all of director Wes Anderson's movies focus on a sense of personal melancholy and directionlessness that often fuels such an odyssey. And they do so with a dark and offbeat wit.

Christian Science Monitor Peter Rainer

Anderson can't quite rise above his own quirkiness. It's not that he can't respond to the beauty he places before us – he can – but his jokiness keeps undercutting his own best efforts. The Darjeeling Limited is a transitional film for him: He's outgrown a comic style that can no longer accommodate his deeper feelings.

Wall Street Journal Joe Morgenstern

The film as a whole operates in Mr. Anderson's patented, semi-precious zone of antic and droll. It's not as if the filmmaker has gone off the rails. He's just not solidly on them.

Variety Alissa Simon

Inventively staged picture should satisfy the upscale, youth and cult auds Anderson has developed, though it's unlikely to draw significantly better than his earlier work.

Newsweek David Ansen

A return to form after the flat "Life Aquatic," Darjeeling has a lightweight, coloring-book charm that deepens and darkens after these odd, privileged ducks are thrown off the train.

Village Voice Nathan Lee

I was moved by Darjeeling, flaws and all, but if my job is to explain why, I find it difficult for reasons that are none of my business. From the minute Wilson walks onscreen, face covered in scars, eyes full of trouble, Darjeeling is warped by the gravitas of his recent suicide attempt.

Washington Post Ann Hornaday

The Darjeeling Limited"has its charms, chief of which is watching three terrific actors evince with unforced ease the rewards and resentments of brotherhood.

The New Yorker Anthony Lane

The Darjeeling Limited works best when the level of artifice is at its highest and most overt.

Austin Chronicle Marjorie Baumgarten

It’s a hard film to shake, and there’s an awful lot to be said for that.

The Onion (A.V. Club) Scott Tobias

The men are fuzzily defined and the film feels incomplete. The devil may be in the details, but for the first time, Anderson's obsession with them has caused him to lose sight of the bigger picture.

Miami Herald Rene Rodriguez

The latest Christmas-tree movie from director Wes Anderson, who makes pictures so carefully appointed and decorated, they sometimes feel like they're made to be looked at instead of watched.

ReelViews James Berardinelli

Technically and thematically, there's a lot in The Darjeeling Limited to arrest the attention. Emotionally, there's a void.

Boston Globe Wesley Morris

You have to admire that someone thought it’d be cool to assemble three of the movies’ most fascinating noses for a 90-minute romp.

Time Richard Corliss

Picaresque movies often feel longer than they are. For them to work, they need an interior spring with more thrust than Darjeeling's attempt at reconstituted brotherhood. The problem is in Anderson's approach, which is so supercool, it's chilly. Anderson has the attitude for comedy but not the aptitude.

Baltimore Sun Michael Sragow

Anderson creates a deluxe train set, for sure. All he neglects is building up an electric current or a head of steam.

Film Threat Mark Bell

The Darjeeling Limited isn't so bad as to offend those who love Wes Anderson too much, but it is not the triumph that his previous films have been.

TV Guide Maitland McDonagh

The trouble with this precious fable isn't that the Whitmans are self-absorbed ninnies: It's that they aren't characters at all.

New York Daily News Jack Mathews

Wilson, Brody and Schwartzman have their charms, but the script gives them little to work with. Anderson and his co-writers have come up with an ordinary road movie.

Slate Dana Stevens

The Darjeeling Limited (Fox Searchlight) struggles to open out from the beautiful, stifling world inside Anderson's head. But like in his last movie, The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou, Anderson makes the mistake of keeping its protagonists trapped for too long aboard a means of conveyance.

New York Magazine David Edelstein

Hit and miss, but its tone of lyric melancholy is remarkably sustained.

New York Post Kyle Smith

A slow train to Dullsville that makes all local stops. You know a film is in trouble if the most interesting thing in it is the luggage.

San Francisco Chronicle Mick LaSalle

A frustrating movie, a work of immaturity from a director who should be past the empty gestures and self-protective distance of his early work.

The average user rating for this movie is 7.0 (out of 10) based on 94 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Aaron F. gave it a10:
Classic Anderson style, redefined Anderson execution. Warning: Will only enjoy if akin to Anderson's previous works.

Jim M. gave it a9:
Very funny at first, then quite affecting. A wry commentary on family relations, and eventually a moving account of intercultural experience. Highly recommended.

Damian P. gave it a4:
While the movie had some good, fresh moments, it chose the easy options too often, especially towards the end. I felt that the director could see that the relationships were over simplified so he contrived some stuff (it's so simplistic, I think "stuff" is a good enough word) to make them less bland. The ending was uninspired and made the whole exercise seem pointless. A waste of talented actors. I definately won't watch this one again.

Aaron R. gave it a4:
(sigh) this movie was a major disappointment. the movie's plot and characters, which Wes Anderson is usually dead on with, really suffered. Word of advice, avoid this movie. Go see his other films which are all masterpieces to the truest sense of the word.

Joe m gave it a2:
I'm a big fan of Wes Anderson's other movies. Rushmore and the royal Tenenbaums are two of my all time favorites, but this one sucked. having seen his other movies, i could predict virtually every line of dialogue. Soo boring, self consciously quirky, and overwrought. ugh. 20 minutes of slow motion in a movie is too much.

Jw gave it a9:
Slow motion is used so well in Wes Anderson's visual arsenal. The symbolic passing of the torch from Anderson regular Bill Murray to newcomer Adrien Brody is classic. But the final boarding sequence, in which all three brothers discard the baggage of the father, is the true gem. The hilarity, as always, is measured, circumstantial. If anyone is going to deliver a line about trying everything, "even if it's shocking or painful," it should be the character with bandages around his head. Such is the logic of Wes Anderson. I love it.

Jack M gave it a0:
I have never watched anything worse. I would've walked out if I hadn't fallen asleep. You people should be ashamed of yourselves for making this piece of crap.

Darjeeling Limited, The Fox Searchlight Pictures

Darjeeling Limited, The
Fox Searchlight Pictures