SYNOPSIS
Family tension again provides dramatic comedy in Wes Anderson's new film, The Darjeeling Limited, about three American brothers traveling by train to find their reclusive mother in rural India. The oldest brother, Francis (Owen Wilson), blackmails his two younger siblings, Peter (Adrien Brody), and Jack (Jason Schwartzman), into traveling to a monastery where their mother, Patricia (Anjelica Huston), has been in hiding as a nun. Supposedly embarking on a spiritual quest, the three men reminisce about the recent death of their father, and the family's irreconcilable problems previous to their reunification.
CRITIQUE
Am I the only one who thinks that Wes Anderson is starting to repeat himself? I don’t mean repeat himself in an evolutionary way, with each new film an evolution of his themes and ideas, I mean repeat himself in a static way. Every film is starting to look the same, down the title designs and musical choices. Anderson – he of the too-small suits, the monocle, the worn-on-the-sleeve pretension – is spinning his wheels, making films by boilerplate.
Maybe this sounds familiar: Moneyed Son/Daughter/Mother/Father/Family Friend/Whoever and Moneyed Son/Daughter/Mother/Father/Family Friend/Whoever Number Two have a moment, a connection. They confide something in one another, come to some understanding, and their relationship changes. Cue the Rolling Stones to punctuate the moment. (Anderson seems to be competing with Martin Scorsese for who can get the most cinematic mileage out of the Stones. Anderson’s use of “2000 Man” in Bottle Rocket was something special, but I think we still have to give the edge to Marty, if for no other reason than he’s made more films.) Anderson’s film’s do have remarkable soundtracks, there seems to be little point to it other than to satisfy some vague notion that it would look really cool to have The Ramones playing as Gwyneth Paltrow gets off the bus.
I don’t want to get off on too much of a rant about Anderson’s pretensions and shortcomings. I probably wouldn’t even notice if I wasn’t kind of the same way. It’s easy to be pretentious if you have the right personality, and when you recognize it in someone else, you love it and hate it at the same time.
What irks me more than anything is the degree of borrowing Anderson does to create his films. The way he appropriated J.D. Salinger’s Glass family for The Royal Tenenbaums, Anderson does the same with the films of Satyajit Ray to create The Darjeeling Limited. There is no secret in this: the film is dedicated to Ray, and music from his films is used on the Darjeeling soundtrack.
But without that, everything from the Indian setting, to the opening sequence, and even the title itself (which feels like a reference to Ray’s Kanchenjungha, which is set in Darjeeling) feels like a shout-out. The similarities end there. Ray made his first film, Pather Panchali, probably one of the ten best films ever made, when he was in his early 30’s. It was completed over the course of three years with an inexperienced crew.
The DVD gives you the option to watch the film with its prologue, Hotel Chevalier. This is not required viewing, but it introduces us to Jack, and it gives us some insight into his character, how long he has been away from home, how alienated he is from the rest of his family. We don’t learn much, but we learn enough to keep us intrigued. It is in India, on the train, when Jack meets up with his two brothers, Peter and Francis.
The three brothers are typical Anderson characters. They are rich and clueless in a worldly way. For all the trappings of their lives, they still just don’t get it; they’re caught up in their own realities. The brothers have not spoken to one another since the death of their father a year earlier, and now that they are on the train, Francis, the oldest of the three, decides that they are on a spiritual journey. Francis cannot help but impose. He orders his brothers’ food at meal time, and their quest for enlightenment, rather than be allowed to unfold organically, is, in the hands of Francis, a tightly regimented, overly itinerated tour, like the train were nothing more than a boat cruise through the Caribbean. Everything abut the journey is forced.
As Francis, Owen Wilson is as good as he always is. The role is tailored to him perfectly. In his overdone head bandages, Francis cannot help but look ridiculous, like an exaggerated version of Jack Nicholson in Chinatown. He cavalierly orders for everyone and has his assistant print up and laminate copies of the day’s schedule.
Their mother, we learn, is somewhere in India, but the talk is more of how she didn’t make it to the funeral than of going to look for her. Mother didn’t show up, but then, the boys almost didn’t make it either. They are all too wrapped up in themselves to be bothered to think about someone else.
Once the brothers get together, the film meanders. They walk through towns, get booted off the train, and eventually happen upon some children stuck in a river. They try to rescue the boys, but one of them ends up dead. “Mine’s dead,” Peter says, as though the boy were a pet or something, not human. The film takes a serious, introspective turn that feels almost completely out of the blue.
Jack, Peter and Francis carry the boy’s body to his house, and they are invited to the funeral. At the funeral, we flash back to the day of their father’s funeral. On their way, they stop to pick up their father’s car, an old Porsche. The mechanic (played perfectly by director Barbet Schroeder) tells them it’s not ready, but they insist on taking it. None of them apparently had much of a relationship with their father in life, so now they are trying to take what little pieces of him are left. Francis chides Peter for taking Dad’s sunglasses, saying they should be for “all of us.” The sad fact is that their father, and whatever relationship and reconciliation there might have been, is gone.
The other thing they take is the luggage, the baggage. This is the most obvious metaphor in the film. Jack has been carrying his piece of the luggage all over the world. The film opens – after a great Bill Murray cameo – with Peter running for the train, lugging his suitcases with him. In the end, after their journey, after they have reunited with their mother, the three of them run for the train, together this time, jumping on together and letting their baggage go.
The Darjeeling Limited is not a bad film. It is a focused return to form after the jumble that was The Life Aquatic, but it is a rambling, meandering film. At times it was too easy for my attention to wander. I’ve been a fan since Bottle Rocket, and I wanted to like this more than I did. Anderson has a definite style and plays with some specific themes, but it would be nice to see him do more with them. As it is, the credits rolled on The Darjeeling Limited and I felt like I had seen the film before.
THE VIDEO
The Darjeeling Limited is presented in a 2.35:1 aspect ratio. The film is beautifully shot, and the vibrant, color Indian locations pop off the screen in this expertly rendered transfer. The Earth tones, the levels of brown, and the dynamic colors of the clothing and décor are all sharp, and the black and white levels are solidly presented.
THE AUDIO
This disc is presented in English 5.1 Dolby Surround. The Darjeeling Limited is loaded with levels of ambient sound – on the train, in crowds – and the presentation on this disc brings the soundtrack to crisp aural life. The dialogue is sharp, all channels come through with great clarity, and the overall presentation is clear.
THE EXTRAS
Featurette: This walking tour of the set of The Darjeeling Limited is interesting and insightful. As we tour the film’s main stage – the train – we learn about the movie itself. We see the detail that went into the set, coupled with on-set footage.
The only other extra on this disc is the film's Theatrical Trailer.
What we have here is good, but it's not enough. A commentary would have been nice. Supposedly, The Criterion Collection is going to be releasing their own DVD later this year; maybe that one will have more.
FINAL THOUGHTS
The Darjeeling Limited is far from the best film Wes Anderson has ever made, but even a mediocre effort is more interesting than much of what is out there. The audio-visual presentation is good, but the bonus material is severely lacking.
