Wes Anderson's quirky Christmas short delivers big charm
Snow falls on a delayed train full of holiday passengers as Wes Anderson turns his distinctive filmmaking eye toward a sweet Christmas tale.
Director Wes Anderson dwells in a world that is similar to our own, but robed in intense colors and retro trappings, where all the men have fabulous mustaches. It's a place where a train attendant can rally together a traveling hodgepodge of diverse, unconnected passengers for a heart-lifting Christmas celebration on the rails. It all comes to life in Anderson's short film "Come Together."
Anderson ensemble regular Adrien Brody steps into the role of Conductor Ralph, a man with the unenviable task of telling a train full of people they're going to be 11.5 hours late for their destination -- on Christmas. Undaunted, he calls for a station master to toss makeshift holiday decorations in through the window, then proceeds to turn the cafeteria into a festive wonderland.
The film, published on Sunday, is part of a holiday marketing push from clothing retailer H&M. The film doesn't hit the advertising angle too hard. A second version of the film hosted on the H&M site features all sorts of extras, including in-depth explorations of the passengers' luggage, links to clothing product pages and lists of background props.
Unfortunately, Brody's nifty blue conductor's uniform vest and green hat doesn't appear to be available to purchase.