Darjeeling Limited
by Catherine Lee

       I'm tempted to say that the stars of Wes Anderson's charming and funny new movie, The Darjeeling Limited, are the noses. The central characters, three brothers traveling across India, repeatedly tell us they are on a spiritual journey in search of a spiritual awakening. And they are. But it is a whimsical Wes Anderson-style spiritual journey, so it is hardly a spiritual journey to be taken too seriously. So I can be forgiven, I hope, for being so distracted by the amazing noses.

       Francis (Owen Wilson), Peter (Adrien Brody) and Jack (Jason Schwartzman) Whitman – yes, they are a veritable human Whitman sampler – haven't been together for about a year, since the death of their father who was run down by a taxi. See? Sad, but also absurd, as all Wes Anderson movies are.

       Anderson loves odd characters. He photographs them with a caressing tenderness for all their quirks. The Darjeeling Limited begins with Bill Murray running for a train, and Anderson uses his disappointed face to get our sympathies in gear.

       Anderson cherishes faces the way old Hollywood cherished faces. We see many great faces in this movie. We see the brothers' faces together in scene after scene. Each actor is handsome – not matinee idol handsome, but attractive with nice eyes and expressive faces. But think of those noses! When you get the three of them together it really is a nosefest. To see the three of them together in profile you almost believe they could be brothers.

       Francis has been in an accident and has a bandaged head and nose throughout the film. He still "has some healing to do." There is an added poignancy to seeing Owen Wilson wearing the dressings of physical wounds. He has always seemed to be a very sunny actor and person. It's hard to imagine him hurting himself.

       Francis is the eldest brother, and he wants to protect his brothers and fix the family. I spent much of the film hoping that Wilson's real life healing can happen as gently and certainly as restoring brotherly love is in a Wes Anderson film.

       Francis isn't playing entirely straight with his brothers. Sure they are on a spiritual journey, but there is a destination. They are on their way to see their mother who is on a spiritual mission of her own and didn't come home for their father's funeral.

       I won't say who plays Mom, but she's a Wes Anderson vet, and she's got a nose that convinces us she could be the mom of these three.

       But I'm getting ahead of myself. There is lots of journeying before they get to Mom. The three brothers board the Darjeeling Limited. I'd like to think there is a train in India as colorful and welcoming as this ride. Riotous blues and gorgeous colorful detailing line the car corridors, and the sleeping compartments are clean and comfy, and also deliciously appointed.

        The train is staffed by a highly professional and courteous staff that speaks beautiful English and treats these three fairly scruffy-looking passengers with respect. At least at first.

       Waris Ahluwalia plays the chief steward on the Darjeeling Limited. He eyes our boys with suspicion, looking down a very elegant nose at them. Rita, an especially beautiful steward, is amused by them and has a tryst or two with Jack. She has a magnificent nose and lots of lovely other features ... not to mention the attitude to go with her nose.

       The boys spend their time sneaking smokes, drinking and imbibing all sorts of "over the counter" substances. They don't get wasted, just pleasantly buzzed. Then they fight like brothers. They bicker about which one was their father's favorite. They covet his possessions. Well, really only Peter does, but they pick on him about his taking of their father's things.

       What they do push each other around about is the luggage. Wes Anderson films feature lovingly crafted details, and in The Darjeeling Limited the luggage is a design delight and a running (often literally) comic delight. The luggage is a special Louis Vuitton print designed by Marc Jacobs with "suitcase wildlife drawings" by Eric Anderson.

       Yes, these boys have baggage, and not just the luggage which comes in all shapes and sizes. Their father is dead. Their mother has left them for her own pursuits. Peter's wife Alice is about to give birth, and he's worried about fatherhood. Neither Francis nor Peter want Jack to get back together with his girlfriend.

       In The Darjeeling Limited we get only a glimpse of Natalie Portman, but the film is traveling with a short film, Hotel Chevalier, which is a meeting of Jack and his girlfriend in a hotel room in Paris somewhere in the year between the death of Papa Whitman and the Indian spiritual journey. Portman has never looked lovelier, but I agree with Peter and Francis about her.

       Like the train in the movie, The Darjeeling Limited sometimes wanders off course. The flashback to the car repair shop to fetch Dad's car on the day of the funeral slips a little past a pleasant leisurely aside. All the events in The Darjeeling Limited exist to give Anderson the playground he wants.

       Everything that happens is weighted a little too evenly. Losing a shoe, a snake or the train have almost as much impact as the accidental death of a young boy. Brody has a few moments of genuine grief at this sad turn of events, but you can almost feel Anderson not quite knowing what to do when someone starts expressing real pain.

       In The Darjeeling Limited the journey is all. The brothers don't really accomplish a spiritual awakening, but they become close again and shed a little of their sadness. They don't solve any big family issues, but they are all more in touch with the contours of the stuff they can't really change. They've added a chapter to the family history that will help them all carry on.

       "I love the way this country smells," says Peter. "I'll never forget it." With the olfactory equipment these boys are sporting, you can't begin to doubt it.

       Catherine Lee is the executive director of Fort Wayne Cinema Center, the only independently operated movie theater in Fort Wayne, specializing in independent, foreign, documentary, specialty and classic films.

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