The Darjeeling Limited

As many people who have written comments on this film have said, I do believe that Wes Anderson is one of the most most important American filmmakers of his generation, however, not many other decent filmmakers exist in his generation. Obviously, he is better than Brett Ratner, or Micheal Bay, but compared to the generation before of Kubrick, Sydney Pollack and Roman Polanki (I realize he is from Poland) Anderson has a lot to live up to if he wants to be on the level of the big boys. That being said, Darjeerling Limited is a precious film which in theory is a great concept. Three emotionally damaged brothers from the leisure class exploring a land rife with spirituality, on a train together forced to cohabitat in close quarters while seeking "bonding" and "spiritual enlightenment", however, something is inherently contrived from the beginning. The opening short is somewhat pretentious in its attempt to become mysterious. Not without its charm, the hotel room is great, with its yellow and red interiors and Natalie Portman is gorgeous with short hair and grey overcoat, Wes Andersons true calling may be interior design because he dresses such pretty sets, but anyway, the film is clever without being laugh out loud funny and interesting for those like myself who have never been to India. The film does have its charm in that we have three lost souls drifting in a sea of loneliness all cramped together while speeding to some unknown and far off location. The problem is, we have seen Anderson do this before. I understand he is at the point now that he can pick and choose and continue to remake the same film, if he really wants to become a Kubrick, Polanski or Bunuel, he must make something different and show that he is more than a talented interior designer with a Beck like knowledge of film and the ability to cut and paste in order to build elaborate collages. Lets see him do a Horror film for starters, what made Kubrick great is that he could do comedy, horror, drama, period pieces, he was constantly pushing the envelope like any true artist yearns to do.