Hotel Chevalier claims to be part one of Wes Anderson's The Darjeeling Limited, and as such, delivers a tantalizing appetizer to the feature film. If you love The Royal Tenenbaums, and The Life Aquatic, you will enjoy this short. It feels older, more mature than the naive and joyful Bottle Rocket, and focuses on the characters without the rambling ambiance of Rushmore.

Here in this solitary hotel room are the expected Anderson accoutrements: the spectacular decorations, the perfectly attuned musical choices and the ideal costuming that allows us a glimpse into the lives of two people who know each other well enough to truly hurt one another.

Jason Schwartzman's character sits alone in his room, until an unexpected phone call and subsequent visit from Natalie Portman recalls him to life. As the short progresses, we learn little about these two, other than the deepest feelings have been shared between them, and now remains a dedication to shutting the other person out while still falling for them all over again. They are dangerous for one another, carefully destroying the other with a touch, a glance, or a soft-spoken syllable.

When you get to know someone so intimately that you can nearly finish their sentences for them, you also know their weakest spots, the places that will bruise if even looked upon. Natalie Portman's character appears strong, possessive and assured, when she shows up outside Schwartzman's door. But after a few moments of interaction, she proves scared and uncertain of herself and her place in Schwartzman's character's world.

Much has been made of Portman's nudity in the short, which is done not to offer up fleshly delights for the puerile among us, but rather to show us the physical signs of her emotional scarring. She is badly bruised and does not explain why, even when asked point blank.

There is a moment of startling clarity in the short, the kind we're not often privy to in real life, the moment where you realize something big has happened and all you can do is sit there, trying to process, mute and stunned. Natalie Portman has said, "Whatever happens in the end, I don't want to lose you as my friend." Jason Schwartzman's character looks at her with a passionless coldness and remarks slowly, "I promise, I will never be your friend… no matter what, ever." The two hold that moment, trying to realize what it means for them, individually and together. It passes and they continue to kiss, layering unspoken lie upon lie.

Portman and Schwartzman give us enough to recognize ourselves and our secrets in their actions without laying out an excessive story. What is left when you've struck each other down, and taken all the cheap shots that there are, in a relationship? We've all been hurt by those that we love; yet there's that possibility of change driving us together once more. Hotel Chevalier is a story of possibility, that despite our worst inclinations and the wrongs we've committed, we can hold one another close if only for a few moments.

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Amanda Mae Meyncke would very much like to visit the Hotel Chevalier, if only for the wallpaper.

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