Word: deadpan
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This--along with the fact that Wilson is one of three brothers (Andrew and Luke are in movies too)--concludes the witness report on the coincidences between Francis Whitman and Owen Wilson. Enough with the creepiness already. What actually registers most strongly in Darjeeling is the sweet deadpan charm that Wilson has brought to all five of Anderson's movies...
...news is about Wilson's medical condition, what registers most strongly in Darjeeling is his sweet deadpan charm. What's amusing about all his bandages, which make his head as turbaned as that of the Sikh fellow who runs the train the brothers are on, is now how he wears them but how he ignores them; it's as if Francis is having a bad hair day everyone notices but him. Speaking in an intense whisper, Wilson unleashes all kinds of crackpot or domineering suggestions that somehow make momentary sense. He's what actors have to be: salesmen of dreams...
...lest we forget, the man behind Yoda) is in charge. He's always been a terrific farceur (Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, In and Out, Bowfinger) and he's at the top of his game here, a master at showing actors how to take the most appalling pratfalls while maintaining their deadpan dignity. If the movie errs, it is with an extended doo-doo joke that crosses over the line into grossness...
...eventually caught up, but ever since, there's been a dialogue between the "real" shows and the spots that pay the bills. The conversational humor of The Office--which Lawson cites as a model for the cavemen spots--owes a debt to the deadpan ads from FedEx, Monster.com and so on that target the same upscale demographic. The crossover hasn't always worked: Baby Bob, a talking-baby sitcom based on an ad, was insipid. But Max Headroom, a black-humored sci-fi series based on a Coca-Cola campaign itself based on a British TV show, was brilliantly subversive...
...characters seem to be Llewelyn Moss (Josh Brolin), an ordinary guy who on a hunting trip discovers a lot of money surrounded by a lot of dead bodies, and Anton Chigurh (Javier Bardem), a tough hombre who wants the money back. "Tough," actually, doesn't do justice to this deadpan psycho whose weapon of choice is a pneumatic air-gun. He's a resourceful creature - when apprehended he uses his handcuffs to strangle a cop - and a memorable sickie...