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I had to see for myself what everyone else was talking about but I never got the chance to actually do it as it was here and gone within weeks.
One of the things about THE DARJEELING LIMITED that I heard a lot of was that it was Wes Anderson at his most common, that it felt like he was going through the motions, that there was nothing new to see here and that, overall, there was a sense that there were these people, three brothers, who deserved every pain inflicted on them.
It was a fairly common complaint and before I had a chance to see whether the critics’ teeth had any merit, poof, it was gone from my one art theater here in brutally sunny Phoenix. Fast forward a few months and the chance to see this film on DVD, with Anderson’s HOTEL CHEVALIER intact and given life/context to the larger narrative, presented itself and I couldn’t be more pleased to have found a movie that naysayers couldn’t have been more wrong about for all the wrong reasons.
One of the gripes, I feel, that many have echoed was that these characters are interminable; their journey seems to go on and on without any reason why you or i should give them any regard. I can see that but I can’t agree for the simple reason that when we are introduced to these brothers, played deftly by Jason Schwartzman, Owen Wilson and Adrien Brody, they are really broken men. The story gives the sense that these three have lived their life infighting and conniving against one another but we’re never quite sure of any these things; that is what’s so alluring about this particular Anderson film. In previous films we’re given cutaways to previous moments in his characters’ lives, the scene where Gene Hackman takes a potshot at his own son with a BB gun is the reason why the flashback can be a good tool if used appropriately, but he does none of that here.
It feels like Anderson is actually reigning himself in a bit, working against type by not falling into his old filmmaking tricks, and instead only gives us a story that works progressively forward and never once looks back. To be sure, we could have had a gloriously hilarious cut scene with Owen Wilson’s horrific motorcycle accident that damn near demands we see what caused such damage to the poor man’s face but we’re not indulged. That’s Anderson’s charm here in ways that makes it more like a Mamet/SPANISH PRISONER type of story, pushing us forward and going along with the oddity of the experience along with the other brothers who can’t understand what they’re doing there either. It’s brilliant in ways that I don’t think other critics give Anderson credit for doing. For example, in HOTEL CHEVALIER we aren’t given any context for Schwartzman’s and Portman’s relationship. Not a single detail that doesn’t pertain to the progressive narrative is given to us; it’s quite un-Anderson and it’s beautifully employed in this very short story that is at once touching and disarming.
The movie’s denouement is completely informed by what came before and if you’ve been paying attention to what has been happening in this story of traveling brothers who at once want to love one another and don’t trust one another it is as a satisfying ending as you’ll get in Anderson’s world here. It shouldn’t be a let down or a dismal ending by any stretch because everything that has been told of what these three men have been struggling with and the veiled finger-pointing about what happened to their father is quite human.
Yes, these are spoiled kids who don’t know better and have no real responsibility beyond globe trotting or living in hotel rooms in France but that doesn’t negate their charm as human beings who have to face something quite human. They can’t buy themselves the inner peace they all concede to find while on their spiritual journey and it is their very same history that will damn them in the end.
An easy cop-out would be to say “this is by no mean a perfect movie” because I would posit that this is a beautiful portrait of a few men who try hard to deal with their own inner turmoils and how zaniness and wackiness can ensue in awfully absurd ways along the way. Anderson weaves humor into this human tapestry in just the right way; it never feels too much and it adds much needed levity in a story about what happens when a patriarch is taken away and nothing but a void takes its place.
It’s an Anderson film at its greatest and most subtle.
The DVD is available on February 26th.
Director: Zac Penn
Cast: Woody Harrelson, David Cross, Shannon Elizabeth, Ray Romano, Michael McKean
Release: March 21, 2008
Synopsis: Set around an international poker tournament. A middle-aged guy goes all-in to save his dead grandfather’s hotel-casino from a real estate developer. His master plan is to win the world’s most famous high stakes tournament, the Grand Championship of Poker.
View Trailer:
* Large (Flash)
Prognosis: Positive. I remember seeing PCU in the theater.
At the time I really had no basis for picking apart the film as critics to me, at that age, were ancient, solipsistic windbags who needed to find meaning in things which needed no meaning other than it was pure entertainment.
That’s what PCU is; a should-have-been mediocre comedy yet somehow ballasted to the surface and pushed to prominence by nuanced comedic performances from Jon Favreau, Jeremy Piven and even David Spade. It was a genuinely good movie and Zac Penn deserves credit for understanding how to balance multiple characters, making them each different and endearing in their own way, and for knowing how to make it all balance out. Luckily, this was noticed by some of the good folks at Fox and it was Zac’s script that X2 which made it one of the best super hero movies this side of SPIDER-MAN 2. Too bad X-MEN: THE LAST STAND shit the bed, it was dreadfully crafted and executed on all levels, but after seeing the trailer for THE GRAND I am all too willing to move past my feelings and promise to stop writing Fox for my $10 back for what I paid for LAST STAND.
After LUCKY YOU I felt that this poker craze has definitely run its course in pop culture and seeing Bana and Barrymore whore themselves for a paycheck for a crap film just solidified my thoughts on the subject. However, this trailer is just one hell of a hoot when you start with the concept of the poker culture, I damn near stopped the trailer in its tracks based on this this, and just rush into meeting Woody Harrelson who is hitting on a waitress.
We figure out that he was already married to her at one time as we blaze through a series of dozens of ladies who he’s been married to, I howled when the inclusion of Jennifer Wilbanks was flashed on the screen with her “crazy†eyes fixed on the camera, which just endeared me to this character.
Chris Parnell is not someone who I would immediately herald as a vanguard of modern comedy but his monotone delivery, and odd behavior, during this introduction was pitch perfect as was David Cross who navigates, and knows how to vacillate, how to ease back his acerbic wit when he’s on stage opposed to when he’s drawing a paycheck. The Muslim comment he makes and the subsequent donning of a burqa in his character’s profile does enough to let us know where he’s coming from.
Richard Kind’s buffoonery is always a pleasure when he’s used in an ensemble and that’s his strength; he knows how to operate when he’s not the one as the center of attention. He just makes everyone else better. A mature Fred Willard, if you will.
Cheryl Hines is a delight just from the standpoint that she is adept at working against anyone she’s put with in a scene, Lord help me I am saying that Ray Romano’s brief appearance is actually entertaining as we learn that Cheryl is the one who wears the pants in the relationship and, my stars and garters, Dennis Farina.
What can you say about a character who rolls in a Rascal and points to a corner near where the MGM stands and says he stabbed a bum near that location? Nothing. Absolutely nothing and it’s no longer than a few seconds before we meet Werner Herzog (Huh?) and his odd personality.
I can’t say that this looks like the next coming of Christ but as I yearn to find something close to what BEST IN SHOW did for me when I saw it in the theaters, to find a movie that knows what it needs to be and just runs with it without trying too hard, this looks like a really solid comedy.
INDIANA JONES AND THE KINGDOM OF THE CRYSTAL SKULL (2008)
Director: Steven Spielberg
Cast: Harrison Ford, Shia LaBeouf, Cate Blanchett, John Hurt, Ray Winstone
Release: May 22, 2008
Synopsis: For more than 25 years, audiences have been enraptured by the exploits of Indiana Jones. The film trilogy — Raiders of the Lost Ark, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, and Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade — garnered 14 Academy Award nominations, won 7 Oscars, and grossed over $1,182,000,000 at the box office. The films are among the most popular films ever made and have become a legendary part of film history. This movie is the 4th installment in the series.
View Trailer:
* Large (QuickTime)
Prognosis: Negative. I don’t like this trailer.
It’s not because I want to be contrary to all those who think this supercedes the second coming of Christ, because we all know Jesus wouldn’t know how to handle a bull whip in the same way that an open-shirted Harrison Ford with his dusty man-mane poking out from his chest can, but it’s really not that great. This trailer suffers from the same crutches that you would expect out of a LEATHAL WEAPON entry or a NAKED GUN promotional spot.
Yes, I realize that it has been quite some time since we last checked in on the octogenarian and his crew but that doesn’t give anyone license to plumb the archives of old footage in order for us to feel a little “Squee!†at the sight of RAIDERS.
What I think is a little disingenuous on the marketing is that we’re leading off this new movie’s campaign by rehashing all the good bits from RAIDERS, TEMPLE and CRUSASE is that it does nothing to really give us a fresh look at the character, Dr. Jones, and, I would posit, only make his current visage a little depressing.
As we lead into the first 1/3rd of the trailer we are led down halcyon lane with clips from all the movies we’ve come to revere in this franchise. The grandiose nature of the trailer steps lightly on self parody with the superimposed image of the swastika and the American flag as we transition to the new film. One of the best things about these films is that they were at once goofy and suave at the same time. This intro makes it seem like none of that jokey spirit (can anyone point to a better moment to laugh in CRUSADE when Sean Connery stared at Ford after the younger Jones expressed an interest in communicating more with the old man?) exists at all.
To wit, Ray Winstone’s “This isn’t going to be easy†is perhaps one of the biggest understatements this year as Ford, unfortunately, looks like he’s been put through life’s blender and has come out the other side looking nothing like the roustabout he’s come to embody. He’s a little puffy, doughy and I can’t really feel inspired by seeing his fragile looking frame on the screen; employing some Vaseline on the camera lens doesn’t seem like such a bad idea after all.
The fight that ensues in a large warehouse that looks like the one that housed the Ark from the first film is a little strange. I don’t know if it’s Cate Blanchett’s strange jet black hair or the odd soundstage quality to the scene where Ford is swinging and elbowing his way though a fight with some baddies. I think if one of those ruffians took Ford’s walking stick and tapped his hip they would end the fight right quick by shattering it.
The Roswell box that seems magnetized “Squee!†and the car chase that looks like it’s going to take someone precipitously close to the edge of the blue screen it was shot against “Double Squee!†doesn’t really get me going as does the laughter that’s created when we get a shot of Ford standing at the top of some stairs. He’s trying to be funny about the “part-time†status of him being a teacher but look how those clothes hang on his body. I can’t place it but it’s just not cool in the way that it used to be.
Is it my own sense of childhood that doesn’t square? No, because we’ve all seen what happens when you employ and older icon, a BATMAN let’s say, and then take the time to do the character some justice.
In summation, this trailer points to one fact that people are going to be reminded of all throughout this film: Harrison is simply looks too old to inspire the same youthful joie de vie that Indiana Jones once did and it’s going to take the rest of the cast to elevate this film from a pity party to a movie that should be one of the greatest entries due to how long everyone took to make this film happen.
P.S. – Could anyone out there toss me an obvious bone here and tell me who in God’s name is supposed to believe that the above movie poster for this film has any resemblance to this image of a waist-high, belt wearin’, Ford that looks awfully close to advertisement in AARP for Docker’s HighWaters than it does an action movie? Oy…Photoshop never worked so hard on jowls like that…
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