Wes Anderson’s ‘The Darjeeling Limited’ to Stink?

Wes Anderson’s The Darjeeling Limited made its debut at the Venice Film Festival over the weekend, and the early word is, well, not very good.

Says Variety:

Breaking no new ground thematically, pic comes closer to The Royal Tenenbaums than The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, but without achieving the poignance of Rushmore… Here, as in his two prior outings, Anderson’s arch, highly artificial style gets in the way of character and emotional development, rendering pic piquant rather than profound.

Says the Hollywood Reporter:

But when current affairs are in such a parlous state, it’s almost unforgivable to make a film about stupid American men traveling abroad with not the slightest awareness of or reference to anything that’s going on in the world. The film is overly pleased with itself, and the characters are way too self-absorbed. There’s never a man-eating tiger around when you need one.

Ouch! Pretty harsh, even though we kind of predicted this might happen when we saw the trailer. We’ll still be first in line when it opens on the 29th, but count us 10 percent less excited. —Lane Brown

The Darjeeling Limited [Variety]
“Darjeeling Limited� a torturous train ride [HR]
Earlier: The Darjeeling Limited: Wes Anderson Rearranges the Furniture