How Wes Anderson Inspired Me

There’s a new movie out that you may have heard of called “Moonrise Kingdom.” Perhaps you are curious. Perhaps you are considering seeing it. Well, let me say that if you are interested in writing of any kind, I URGE you to go do so. The script of that film is one of the most tightly-written stories I’ve seen in a long time. It’s practically poreless. So, for you writers out there, it’s a good source of research.

It also happens to be a highly enjoyable film, so you’re lucky there too.

Seeing it last week, however, reminded me about another Wes Anderson film that I really enjoy, and which actually inspired me, in part, to write The Summer of Firsts and Lasts. “Darjeeling Limited” is the tale of three grown brothers traveling across India on what the eldest describes as a “quest to bond again” (though it’s secretly his intent to find their estranged mother, who has joined a convent). When I watched it for the first time, I was completely struck by how well the writer captured the complicated relationship dynamics between three siblings of the same gender. As you may know, I’m the eldest of three sisters, and I could *totally* relate to the different connections the brothers had together. To me, it was so true: Youngest has his own complicated relationship with Middle, Middle has his tangled relationship with Eldest, and Eldest and Youngest also have their own separate relationship, too. The three of them as a unit also make up an entirely separate, distinct relationship.

It’s amazing, and complex: Each sibling represents his own point in a triangle. Then, a side is created between each of the two points. When these are connected together, makes the strongest polygon there is. It’s one of the really amazing parts of this kind of sibling dynamic, and I’m not sure I would’ve written The Summer of Firsts and Lasts in the way I did, if “Darjeeling Limited” hadn’t shown me that I think this sibling situation is pretty magical (though sometimes difficult), too.