The restrained and yet brooding emotion of his two characters are well painted in the dialogue but, more importantly, Schwartzman and Portman nail it — the former in particular showing as much pain as desire in his actions and language.
He readies the room, moving without affect, drawing a bath, changing his clothes.
In this short, Jack Jason Schwartzman , one of the brothers, has been hiding away in a Paris hotel room for months.
And, by a stroke of something of a quasi-in-joke, like one of the 'brilliant' short stories that the character Jack writes that are 'fictional' though never really at the same time.
The dialogue is awkward beyond belief and makes no sense whatsoever.
The short is in fact important as back story for the longer film, as Jack's relationship with this girl is alluded to, and objects from the hotel such as a bathrobe appear among his luggage in India.
Since most people are only familiar with a limited number of Anderson's films, I will start by pointing out that this is not the quirky whimsical reverie that one sees in his better-known works.
I suppose the one thing in its defence would be that, as an upmarket trailer, it will really work for Anderson's fans.