Director Wes Anderson's (Bottle Rocket, The Royal Tenenbaums) new film The Darjeeling Limited features Owen Wilson, Adrian Brody and Jason Schwartzman as three bothers who haven't spoken in a year after their father's (Bill Murray) death. Each brother has a distinctive way of dealing with the depression left after the funeral.
The brothers engage on a spiritual journey across India in a train per the request of the eldest brother Francis (Wilson) in order to re-establish trust and a family connection. He goes so far as the plan their entire trip with the help of his assistant Brendan (Wally Wolodarsky) who maps it out with laminated itineraries. The bandaged wounds on Francis' face obviously mirror his open inner-wounds.
Absolutely certain his marriage is going to end in divorce the middle child, Peter (Brody), is possibly the most enigmatic and fatalistic of all of the bothers. He is the one who has a family back home but he disappears within himself as his way of dealing with the tension and stress of the last year of his life.
The youngest, Jack (Schwartzman), runs away from his girlfriend (Natalie Portman) and hides out at the Hotel Chevalier (more on that later) in France. His inability to have a sustainable and positive relationship with any woman is well developed throughout the film.
As always, the quirky aesthetics employed by Wes are there but the film isn't as comical as previous Anderson attempts. It is a deeper more mature look into his personal universe. The brothers' constant use of over the counter Indian pain killers and cough syrup is funny but they go back to that well a few times too often. The film feels like it has a certain sentimental value to it that you have a hard time putting your finger on. Anderson's previous films have left me feeling cold and unmoved but this film has certain genuine heartfelt warmth about it that is very different from anything he has done before.
It feels more like a companion to The Royal Tenenbaums more than a new direction for Wes Anderson. It is a film about the characters that are trapped within themselves and a film about, literally, shedding the baggage of their family's patriarch.
If you are a fan of Wes Anderson I don't need to convince you to see this. You will and you'll probably enjoy it due to familiar motifs and themes found in his films. If you haven't seen many of his films this one stands well on its own and is much deeper and satisfying than it is on the surface. This might be the type of film that grows on you after a few viewings and to make sense of it all you might want to watch it more than once.
Hotel Chevalier is the name of the short film that preceded The Darjeeling Limited at the Venice and the New York Film Festivals. The 13-minute short is rumored to be cut from the nationwide release of the film but can be downloaded for free on iTunes. If you plan on seeing the movie, you should watch the short or parts of the film might not make sense.