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wes is more
The Darjeeling Limited
by rick grant    rickgrant01@comcast.net
A- Rated PG-13 91 min

      Wes Anderson has carved out a fiercely original niche in filmdom. His eccentric droll satire and the use of the same actors has established Wes as a wunderkind who writes and directs his own brand of dramedy. With critically acclaimed movies such as Rushmore, The Royal Tenenbaums, and The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou Wes has gained the respect of Hollywood’s elite without compromising his artistic ideals. Indeed, Wes plays in his own sandbox universe, oblivious to whether or not his films make money. He’s the Woody Allen of today’s film world (without Woody’s pedophile leanings).
      The Darjeeling Limited is Wes Anderson’s peculiar meditation on the loss of a parent fused with a trip gone terribly wrong. Three estranged brothers–Francis (Owen Wilson) Peter, (Adrien Brody) and Jack (Jason Schwartzman) come together at their father’s funeral. Then, on a whim, they travel to India to find their mother, Patricia (Angelica Houston) who dropped out of life, became a nun, and joined convent school as a teacher. The underlying motivation for the brothers’ trip is spiritual enlightenment masking an exotic getaway from their individual problems back home, while dealing with their grief over their father’s death.
      Wes has placed his repressed characters – the three brothers – in a fish-out-of-water milieu. The brothers board a slow moving Indian ramshackle train for a six day journey to locate their mother. Along the way, they have many misadventures. A short film preceding the movie acts as a prelude in which viewers learn about Jack’s strange love affair with his standoffish ex-girlfriend (Natalie Portman) in a Paris hotel room. In contrast to his non-passionate relationship with Portman’s character, Jack has a kinky sexual tryst with a beautiful train stewardess.
      Bill Murray even has a cameo as a Businessman who doesn’t catch the train. (Wes was determined to get Murray in his film, even if just for one scene.) The brothers travel with a stash of Francis’ pain medication to stay high during the long trip. Their flagrant disregard for the train’s rules gets them in trouble with the funny train conductor character, who doesn’t like them.
      By Wes working with basically the same cast and crew, who understand his ideas and methods of filmmaking, the actors are able to improvise and precisely create Wes’ ideal characters, who are way left-of-center, but oddly appealing. The humor is subtly drawn from each actor’s fine tuned characterization, and the fact that Jason Schwartzman is a co-writer of the film as well as a star. Instead of having Owen help write this one, Roman Coppola inked part of it, bringing in an authentic family connection between the writers, since Coppola and Schwartzman are cousins.
      For Wes’ fanatical cult following, this is another little masterpiece of his original style and vision. I’m glad Wes can make his films without compromise, maybe creative cinema will stick around.

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