The Darjeeling Limited begins promisingly, with Wes Anderson
stalwart Bill Murray, dressed as a business man, in the back of a taxi racing
through the streets of an unnamed Indian
town. This race is accompanied by some lively Indian music. Murrays character is racing to catch a train ,
called the Darjeeling Limited. Although he fails, another, played by Adrian
Brody, just manages to board as the train is pulling out of the station. Brody
meets his brothers, played by Jason Schwartzmann and Owen Wilson, on the train.
Wilson’s
character, the eldest, outlines the premise of the story : He has brought his
brothers together so they might re-establish their bond that apparently has
weakened in the year since the death of their father, an apparently extremely
wealthy businessman. During that year, each brother has manifested their loss
in different ways, in the eldest brothers case, by deliberately “crashing
face-first into a mountainside” on his motorbike. The other brothers also have “issues”,
which we will not go into now.
The novelty, colour, detail of set, and
whimsicality of the Anderson
universe, now, most importantly, transported to a characterful Indian train, slowly
becomes irresistible. The “Darjeeling” part of the film – by which I mean that
part set on the train – accounts for about half of the running time, up until, following
an acrimonious display and a random tragedy, the brothers spend some time in a
remote village, and attend a traditional funeral ceremony.Some of the images
from the desert village are quite beautiful, even if the accompanying music sometimes
feels intrusive. The cremation rekindles the connection between the brothers,
perhaps the suggestion is that their grief for their father was more
effectively assuaged by this ceremony than by his own. Indeed, Anderson
gives us an idea of the atmosphere surrounding that ceremony, with a brief
timeshift to New York,
where the three brothers are being chauffeured to their father’s funeral.
Brody’s character suddenly feels compelled to collect his dead father’s porsche
from, wait for it, Luftwaffe Motors, specialising in German cars, where it is
being repaired. This does not turn out well, but does serve to illustrate the
frustrations being felt by the three brothers.
And so, back to India, post-village, where the
brothers have located their mother, played by Anjelica Huston, who is working
and living as a nun in the “foothills of the himalayas”. After attempting to
bond with her, the next morning the boys wake up to find that she has left the
convent. At this stage the mood created by the train scenes has dissipated, and
it seems as though the Huston character and convent scenes are broaching new
concerns, the issues raised between the brothers in the train scenes having
been dealt with, as much as possible. And indeed, the film is winding down, the
brothers are next seen in an international departures lounge, but they turn
back from the plane at the last moment. Instead, it appears that their
intention is to remain in India,
and they race to catch a train, the Bengal Lancer. This time, in order to race and catch
the train they have to throw away their luggage, or should that
be baggage? Ho hum.
In summary, the film is colourful and
energetic. The sets are well dressed, if, occasionally, a little over the top.
The characters are one-dimensional and portrayed as clueless, each is
characterised by a simplistic motif. One
is compelled to envisage Anderson
as a grown-up who still likes to play lets pretend. His films, and this one
maybe less so than say, The Life Aquatic,
are charming because they strive to achieve a similar effect as that achieved
elsewhere with CGI and the like, by using bric-a-brac and handmade items.
The film is preceded by a short film whose
title, at the end of the short, is revealed as Hotel Chevalier - Episode 1 of The Darjeeling Limited. Schwartzmann,
playing the abovementioned brother, has lived for an unspecified but lengthy
period of time in an expensive Parisian hotel room. He looks like Paul
McCartney walking across Abbey
Road, shoeless to boot. Natalie Portman also
features. She chews toothpicks, that's her thing apparently, and she’s nude at one point, in such a way, unfortunately, that
seems as if that’s the whole point of the piece.
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