I can only hope this grows on me like The Life Aquatic did, but I really haven’t thought about it since the weekend, so I must admit that hope is growing dim.

i dunno..ive liked wes anderson’s last couple movies more than the first, but still..i find it strange i seem to have to make a conscious decision whether i liked it or not. theres plenty of really likable parts, whether it be the background or a camera technique, but i find that the actual storyline of most of his movies are just about whiny rich white kids. and i dont have to go to a movie to put up with that petulant shit.

style over substance. thats the argument. anderson is notorious for not being able to craft characters that create any kind of emotional response from the audience. he gets a little bit closer here, but still, i cant help the feeling that the actors are winking at one another when theyre out of the frame. i just cant take anyone seriously. i still just..dont care. as in dont care if they live or die. either way, its just a plot device. a means to some insipid end.
see, this is how it is! i start off generally liking anderson’s films, but the more i think and talk about them, the more bitchy i become. bah.

Wes Anderson is out with another chronicle of poor little rich boys who never got the message that they’re grownups now. Off-the-hook luxurious props and set decoration, check. Messed up family dynamics, check. Jason Schwartzmann, Owen Wilson, Bill Murray, etc., check. Mannered, repetitive tropes and scene framings, check. Honestly, it’s a real eyeball-roller from beginning to end.

And yet…

What saves it is the sumptuous gorgeousness of the movie itself. Anderson and brother Eric always dote on the minutiae of props and sets, and they went over the top this time, engaging a local Indian artist to painstakingly decorate almost every inch of the eponymous train with ornate paintings of elephants and a mural that basically is one giant plot spoiler now that you can slow it down and take it in bit by bit on DVD, and creating a ridiculously pretty set of Louis Vuitton baggage that isn’t just metaphorical after all—if it wasn’t your dad’s baggage, you’d still want to keep it for its sheer utility, prettiness and uniqueness.

And then there’s India. We don’t see any of it that we haven’t seen in far better films, American, British or Bollywood, but still, it’s good to have it there.

The acting is fine. I think anyone in an Anderson movie should get an award just for being able to deliver his absurdist dialog with a straight face. “I love you too, but I’m going to mace you in the face!”

And then there’s the score. Oh, the score. I’m still humming it long after taking this movie in.

So yes, you will be annoyed; you will also be entertained.

And that’s what you go to a Wes Anderson film for in the first place, neh?