The Darjeeling Limited, from director Wes Anderson, is a rare beast indeed. It's the kind of film that I enjoyed watching, but when it was over, I knew that I could not recommend it to others. How could someone like a movie and not recommend it, you ask? It's not easy, to be honest, but Anderson has pulled it off. The problem is that Darjeeling feels far too much like his last two efforts: The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou and The Royal Tenenbaums. It looks the same, touches upon the same themes, and overall has the same vibe (each one is about a maladjusted family coming to terms with each other while confined to a location - be it a house, a submarine, or a train). In other words, if you've seen other Wes Anderson movies, this one offers nothing new at all. And if you've never seen one of his movies, I can't recommend it either, as it never tackles any of these elements nearly as well as Tenenbaums did. That's not to say there isn't stuff to enjoy, just that the things I enjoyed never amounted to enough to satisfy me as a Wes Anderson fan.The film follows three brothers played by Owen Wilson, Jason Schwartzman, and Adrien Brody as they attempt to reconnect with each other during a spiritual train ride through India. Each brother has serious personal issues they are trying to deal with, all made more difficult by the recent death of their father. Wilson's Francis may have tried to kill himself by crashing his car (a sad irony in light of Wilson's recent problems). Schwartzman's Jack is a writer who based his novels on real life experiences, yet refuses to believe that they are in fact autobiographical. He is currently trying to deal with his obsessive infatuation with an ex lover who ruined his life. Brody's Peter is a cynical man who can't accept that he is about to become a father, using the trip to India as an excuse to get away from his pregnant wife. None of these characters are particularly likable, but that doesn't quite seem to matter. You never hate them, instead simply seeing them as deeply flawed characters that need some sort of life changing experience on this trip to turn them around. Suffice it to say, that experience happens in the most unexpected way.
For two thirds this is largely an outright comedy with spiritual inclinations, and if you're familiar with Anderson's style, you know what kind of humor to expect. But the final third of the movie takes a surprisingly dark turn, one you will either be able to get behind, or one that will ultimately turn you off to the film. I was able to accept this incident simply because it allowed us to see how it reflected the three brothers' reaction to their father's death a year before. Still, it takes the film on a twenty minute detour that is very sobering and not at all like what has lead up to it.
As you would expect, this is another visually stimulating film from Anderson, with an amazing set (Anderson actually used a real train to film on and had it travel around India while he filmed). He is one of those few directors who has found a unique visual style that works from film to film and doesn't seem to get too old, much like Tim Burton, Michael Mann, or Terry Gilliam. And while it could be argued that his films revel too much in their music video qualities - such as numerous slow motion shots set to indie songs - those moments often end up standing out as the best parts of his movies anyway. Take, for example, the opening scene in which a businessman and Peter are racing each other to catch the leaving train, perhaps the best scene in the movie. It sets the mood for the movie and is a fun introduction to a character and the location of the film.
I think my biggest problem with this film was that it felt so heavy-handed. Unlike Anderson's other films, this one relies far too much on a visual metaphor involving the brothers' father's travel bags that they carry everywhere with them. They've had these bags with them ever since he died, and they continually cause discomfort and trouble as the three men travel across India. If you can't figure out what happens to those bags by the film's end, then I envy your simple-minded naivety: you are surely one who is easily impressed by any movie you watch.
It's time for Wes Anderson to shake things up. If he does this story again for a fourth time, he will be in danger of losing many of his fans. It's not that it's a bad movie at all, just that I've come to expect these same things from him every outing. Unlike the Burtons and Gilliams of film, he is happy using his visual style to tell the exact same story over and over. It's frustrating, as anyone who has seen The Royal Tenenbaums and Rushmore knows, he has some great talent that shouldn't be wasted on these facsimiles of his past films.
