New on DVD: 'The Darjeeling Limited' and 'I Could Never Be Your Woman'
Three brothers journey across India in Wes Anderson's typically whimsical comedy; Michelle Pfeiffer lights up an uneven, direct-to-DVD film by Amy Heckerling.
Here's a cute little movie shot in marvelously bright tones – with frequent digressions into elaborate montage – and accompanied by a soundtrack of lilting, off-key ballads. Owen Wilson stars. "The Darjeeling Limited," in other words, is very much like nearly every other Wes Anderson movie. Whether or not you love it will largely depend on your appetite for a twee and sweeping sentimentality. The plot: three brothers, an introverted bunch, stuck in adolescence, and terrified by adulthood, travel across India by rail on a search for spiritual enlightenment. Instead, they find themselves. The moral, rendered in filmic metaphor, is that we all have baggage to deal with. Bonus features include a whip-smart short, "Hotel Chevalier," starring Natalie Portman. Grade: A– – Matthew Shaer
I Could Never Be Your Woman (PG-13)
Michelle Pfeiffer exudes more star power than the Sagittarius constellation in the role of a divorced TV producer who is trying to raise a newly pubescent daughter as well as sort through her feelings for a younger man (Paul Rudd). Part romance, part satire of the TV industry, part meditation on the role of women who have lost the currency of youth, this ambitiously messy film also stars a toga-clad Tracy Ullman as an invisible Greek chorister who munches on a Brooklyn accent like chewing gum. The charms of Rudd and Pfeiffer help to even the keels. Grade: B– – Stephen Humphries