The Darjeeling Limited
DIR: Wes Anderson • WRI: Wes Anderson, Roman Coppola, Jason Schwartzman • PROD: Wes Anderson, Scott Rudin, Roman Coppola and Lydia Dean Pilcher • DOP: Robert D. Yeoman • ED: Andrew Weisblum • DES: Mark Friedberg • CAST: Owen Wilson, Adrien Brody, Jason Schwartzman, Anjelica Huston, Amara Karan, Camilla Rutherford, Irrfan Khan and Bill Murray

Wes Anderson’s new film, The Darjeeling Limited, follows the trail of three brothers on their spiritual journey through India. And it’s as simple as that. Anderson seems to have reigned in his usual showy, meticulous attention to the quirky (although some of that’s still around), and managed to create a film not so dissimilar from his first feature, Bottle Rocket. Interestingly enough, this is his second time writing without Owen Wilson since Bottle Rocket (2004’s The Life Aquatic was co-written by Noah Baumbach) and yet that wonderful Owen Wilson touch still remains. Maybe that touch is simply the energy of creating a world and writing with your closest friends (in this case, Jason Schwartzman and Roman Coppola), but it really comes across in this film as a genuine sweetness and camaraderie amidst the deterioration of an already broken family, a reoccurring Anderson theme.

With each film Anderson has released, his audience has grown more and more divided. Some believe he’s become too obsessed with his own style and can’t come up with anything new, while others feel his unique style and knack for dialogue is engrossing and becomes richer with each film he makes. I’d like to argue that it’s not as black-and-white as that, although I tend to lean towards the latter category. With Darjeeling, Anderson has managed to stay true to what his audiences loved in the first place; a return to the loveably flawed characters lost in their own world of adventure and blinded by their own attempts at personal achievement. Darjeeling has elements of the best of Anderson’s first three films: the brother-like relationship of Dignan, Anthony, and Bob in Bottle Rocket, held together by Dignan’s endless hope for the future; the confused, younger character of Max Fischer in Rushmore and his need to be loved and respected, not realizing what he already has; and the broken family depicted in The Royal Tenenbaums that causes the characters to become isolated and depressed, unable to come together without the help of their deceitful patriarch.

Darjeeling apparently dismisses the patriarchal figure all together, yet his presence is felt throughout the film. Taking place a year after their father’s death, Francis (Owen Wilson) invites his two brothers to take a spiritual journey with him through India, as none of them have seen each other since the funeral. When Jack (Schwartzman) and Peter (Brody) arrive and meet Francis on the train, they find that he’s been in a motorcycle crash that’s left him bloodied and bandaged, wishing he could be with his brothers, and hoping to reconnect with them through some kind of meditative quest for love and redemption. The problem is that Francis himself doesn’t realize how to go about doing this. Jack and Peter discover that Francis has over-organized everything and brought along a personal assistant, complete with a laminating machine and Apple laptop.

Like Brendan the personal assistant, each brother has brought along elements of his own world into the constantly changing and culturally engaging environment of India. Peter still carries around all of his deceased father’s old belongings, Jack seems unable to let go of his iPod and Bose speaker, and Francis is constantly fretting over the losing or borrowing of extremely expensive articles of clothing, belts, and shoes. And while this might all seem petty and predictable, it’s the three brothers’ contradictory, endlessly hopeful attitude that makes this film so heartfelt, engaging and real. Moments after Francis shouts at a young Indian boy for stealing his $3,000 shoe, he looks around at the city and exclaims, ‘God, I love these people.’ By the end of the film, you feel that same excitement and hopefulness as well.

The great thing here is that Anderson never plays down the Indian culture and nor does he pander to it. He instead presents it through a traveller’s eye and never forgets to show its ever-changing effects on the three brothers, despite their otherworldly pettiness and attachment to the material. Here, Anderson has again created a wonderfully detailed and beautifully flawed world for his characters to live in and grow. It’s a huge step towards a more mature, open-minded filmmaking, without losing what made Anderson so unique and brilliant in the first place. Take it in slowly and see it twice; it’s a beautiful film and a great addition to the already near-perfect filmography of Wes Anderson.           

Alex Mechanik

Rated 15 (see IFCO website for details)
The Darjeeling Limited is released on 23rd November 2007
The Darjeeling Limited – Official website