The Darjeeling Limited & Into The Wild

It was a good weekend for film. I’ve had a hell of a couple weeks at work and it’s been hard to keep caught up with my movie watching. However, because four films that I wanted to see went into wide release on Friday (or at least wide enough for me to see them in Ohio), I made time between work and a short film shoot to see get out to the theaters, twice. On Friday, I saw Wes Anderson’s The Darjeeling Limited and then on Saturday I made it to Sean Penn’s Into The Wild. (By the way the other two films I’m saving for later are: Lust Caution & Gone Baby Gone, so expect to see write ups for those coming soon).


I have to say I was very pleased with both films. I’m a big Wes Anderson fan—and like most of his “mainstream” fans I probably relate most to films like The Royal Tenenbaums and even Rushmore. 2004’s The Life Aquatic was a bit lost on me. Althouh, I have to say that I’ve come to enjoy the film more with time, at first it seemed like a cartoony, border-line indulgent sequel to The Royal Tenenbaums. And because of this, I had my doubts about The Darjeeling Limited.

I expected Anderson’s signature emotionally-damaged characters dealing with a complex family of clashing personalities. His characteristic sarcastic, dry humor was even more potent and polished. However, the principle cast of characters—the Whitman brothers, played by Anderson regulars Jason Schwartzman and Owen Wilson and newcomer Adrien Brody—were a departure when compared to the menagerie of characters in his other films. The simplified bill, simplified plotline and simplified production style really made for a tighter and more accessible film that I suspect will one day be regarded as one of Anderson’s “classics”.


If you do check out the The Darjeeling Limited, go to www.hotelchevalier.com and check out the short film Hotel Chevalier. It is a standalone prequel to Darjeeling. It complements it well and gives necessary insight into one of the Whitman brothers. And oh yeah, it’s one of the finer short films I’ve seen in the past year.


While The Darjeeling Limited deals with the spiritual journey of three characters, Into The Wild follows just one man on his journey of self-discovery. Based on the Jon Krakauer novel by the same name, the film tells the real-life story of Chris McCandless’ (Emile Hirsch) bizarre journey across America and eventually to the Alaskan wilderness. What amazed me most about this film was that while touching on all sorts of heavy philosophical issues like: purpose, achievement, family, love and even religion; and making use of extensive voiceovers and quotations from writers like Tolstoy and Thoreau, it still manages not to be terribly pretentious. (But you’ll have to judge that for yourself.) I attribute this to the excellent writing and direction as well as Hirsch’s engaging performance. The themes (pretentiousness and all) were necessary pieces of the character.

I found as the character flipped between delusional and enlightened (and likewise gained and lost the audience’s sentiment) the story maintained an objective point of view. As you would expect from a story that takes place almost entirely in the wilderness, the cinematography was breathtaking. I was surprised by the spectrum of techniques that Penn and French cinematographer Eric Gautier used: the timbre changed frequently from handheld to steadicam to complex crane and aerial work. Much of the film was designed to feel extremely real, but during some of the more “turbulent” pieces of McCandless’ adventure, a much more impressionistic aesthetic was employed.

Into the Wild did move a bit slow at times, but I felt that the audience was always involved in McCandless’ progress and this kept us in the story. This, along with The Darjeeling Limited, represent two American directors at the top of their game.

The Darjeeling Limited

(4.5/5)

Into The Wild


(4/5)