Photo by James Hamilton. Copyright FoxSearchlight
Adrien Brody, Jason Schwartzman and Owen Wilson in The Darjeeling Limited

by LISA CHIU

Wes Anderson’s The Darjeeling Limited brings American alienation to the developing world as three brothers embark on a spiritual quest through India by train.

The brothers, Francis, Jack and Peter Whitman haven’t spoken since their father died a year ago. While the trio are close enough to share local pharmaceuticals, perform spiritual rituals, and carry matching monogrammed luggage –- which ostensibly belonged to their dead father — they can’t seem to discuss their problems without one asking the other to keep it a secret from the third.

Owen Wilson plays the eldest brother, Francis, a control freak who planned the trip and sets each day’s itinerary on laminated cards which are made by his lovable bald assistant Brendan, played by Wallace Wolodarsky.

Middle brother Peter Whitman, played by Adrien Brody, can’t handle the fact that his wife is about to give birth as their marriage is on the rocks, and the youngest brother, Jack, played by Jason Schwartzman (also co-writter of the screenplay), can’t get over a breakup and numbs his aching heart with an affair with the train’s lovely attendant.

All three are still mourning the death of their father.

The trip is meant to rekindle their brotherhood but Francis, who is recovering from a life-threatening car accident, has ulterior motives. Unbeknownst to his brothers, he plans to bring them to see their mother, played by Anjelica Huson, who ran off to India after their father’s death to be a nun.

Gorgeous scenes of India pass through the train’s window as the brothers’ chain smoke, pop pills and bicker about their relationship all the while stopping at religious sites to enigmatically pray. The train serves as a great confining element, both for the brothers, and others on board, including train attendant, Rita, played by Amara Karan, who gets involved with Jack Whitman, after breaking up with her boyfriend.

It wouldn’t be an Anderson film without the idiosyncratic touches: The movie opens with Bill Murray, playing a businessman, missing the train. The train’s Chief Steward, played in deadpan by Waris Ahluwalia, is a Sikh who wears a turban and keeps a long beard, yet he speaks and acts like an American. Jack’s ex-girlfriend, featured briefly, is played by Natalie Portman and their story is told in a 13-minute short called The Hotel Chevalier available free on iTunes.

Things take a turn when the brothers are kicked off the train for fighting and bringing a poisonous snake aboard. It is in this unplanned part of their journey that they truly discover themselves.

Lost in the desert with nothing but matching luggage, the brothers happen to chance upon a group of boys crossing a raging river. As their raft breaks, the brothers rush to save the children, but one does not survive. They bring the dead boy to his father and are asked to stay for the funeral, a reminder of another funeral they attended a year ago.

The Whitman brothers learn to let go of their past through their travels, culminating in their rush to board their final train home. As the three run alongside the train, they realize that their father’s baggage – literally and figuratively – is weighing them down, and finally discard it in the Indian countryside.

Anderson’s talent is looking at broken relationships, as he has in his previous films The Royal Tenenbaums and The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou.

While the film was an original artistic exploration of relationships, it does follow a pattern of past plot lines where westerners “find themselves” in foreign countries, particularly developing nations. Such scenarios seem to lend itself to cultural objectification of people native to the country playing secondary characters that simply push the main characters, usually western, to revelation.

Anderson could have easily framed the same story, through the Indian characters in the film — Rita, the train attendant, the Chief Steward, or the family of the dead boy. That could have elevated this film from sentimental idiosyncrasy with a well-trodden plot line to a compelling and original tale.