Opening Act: The Darjeeling Limited
Welcome to Opening Act, an analysis of the greatest opening scenes in film history. Today, the black sheep in the Wes Anderson filmography, 2007's The Darjeeling Limited. Darjeeling is perhaps the only Wes Anderson film apart from his debut, Bottle Rocket, to not be held in high regard by his fans. Rushmore, The Royal Tenebaums, The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, Fantastic Mr. Fox, Moonrise Kingdom, The Grand Budapest Hotel. All highly regarded films with perhaps the small exception being The Life Aquatic but I feel like that film has completely overcome its initial divisive reactions. The Darjeeling Limited however always seems to be near the bottom of Wes Anderson rankings though the consensus isn't that it is bad, merely that it isn't great. Personally, I think it's a film with a bunch of great moments but it just feels lacking in areas in ways that I can't quite put my finger on. The central relationship between the brothers played by Owen Wilson, Jason Schwartzman and Adrien Brody is great but something about it just feels like Wes Anderson on autopilot. But, let's move on, we're only here to talk about the amazing opening scene, Bill Murray racing through an Indian city to try and catch the titular train.