The Quirky Darjeeling Limited

The Darjeeling Limited is an oddball movie about three brothers who go on a spiritual journey through India. It stars Owen Wilson, Adrien Brody, and Jason Schwartzman as the brothers. This movie was directed by Wes Anderson, who previously did The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou and Rushmore. It was not a box office success.

As the story begins, we learn that the father of these three brothers has died, and their mother is living in a convent somewhere in the Himalayas. The brothers find themselves on a train called ‘The Darjeeling Limited’ and they travel through India in hopes of meeting with their mother, who they have not seen for quite a while. As the brothers speak to each other in the beginning, we also learn that they have not seen each other in well over a year.

These brothers are all quite different. Owen Wilson is a control freak who seems to have been a successful businessman of some kind. He spends the movie with his head wrapped in bandages after a nasty motorcycle accident. Adrien Brody seems to be having problems with the loss of his father, and throughout the movie he is shown with items that had once belonged to his dad. Jason Schwartzman, who is the youngest of the three, is a playboy who is more interested in the lovely Indian ladies that he really is with hanging out with his brothers.

Despite being such an odd story filled with weird characters, this is a beautiful movie. The three brothers remain the centerpiece of the movie, but they move through various different parts of India in a way that shows off the country. It is a place full of color and people and I really liked how the movie used the locations to full effect.

What I got out of this movie was that these brothers were on a mission to find themselves, as it is obvious they are all lacking something in their lives. By going to this foreign country, they are getting out of their own comfort zones and creating a situation where they must depend on each other. It’s an interesting scenario played out in a fascinating environment. My favorite line came later in the movie when one brother asks the others if they thought they might have all been friends if they weren’t brothers.

The DVD has some initial menu options that first confused me, but I did a little reading online to figure out what was going on. Basically, this movie has two parts. The first part is a 13-minute short film called The Hotel Chevalier, and it stars Schwartzman and Natalie Portman. She spends most of the movie completely nude, which was a surprise. As a standalone story, I found it very interesting, and it does play very well into the second part, which is the main body of the movie. Pay attention at the end of the movie because it helps to explain what was going on in the Hotel.

I wonder if this movie might have received a better reception if it weren’t for Owen Wilson’s highly publicized suicide attempt around the time of its release. It didn’t help that the news was constantly running stories about Wilson cutting his wrists while the character he plays in this movie spends the whole thing covered in bandages, including some around one wrist. I’m just glad he was able to be saved, because he really is a talented guy.

In the end, The Darjeeling Limited is a wonderful little movie that is as creative as it is harmless, and I loved how quirky and lighthearted the whole thing was. It’s worth seeing just to get a taste of life in India. Too bad the DVD extras were rather sparse.