The world of independent films always eagerly awaits a new entry into director Wes Anderson’s canon. His films have a Salinger-esque celebration of tormented eccentrics with messsed up families. After his debut “Bottlerocket”, Anderson developed an endearing production aesthetic that often seems childlike in its wonder, yet masterful in its execution. All of these traits can be found in “The Darjeeling”, but that’s not to say that Anderson isn’t evolving.
The film’s premise is no shocker to an Anderson fan; three estranged brothers with a souring relationship plan a spiritual journey through India, ending at the church their long lost mother has taken residence in. Anderson succeeds in clearly illustrating the brother’s birth order without announcement. Owen Wilson plays Francis the condescending older brother on the mend from a motorcyle accident, Adrian Brody plays the angsty and recentful middle-sibling, and Jason Schwartzman is the obediant but secretive baby of the family.
The three are as prone to squabbling as they are to overindulging in pharmeceuticals. It instantly is clear that their sojourn by train is bound as much by disaster as Anderson’s obsessive sense of design. Indeed, the film at times seems to crack under the weight of the director’s eye for brilliant complimentary colors, vintage/kitschy props and masterfully executed slow motion passages. It’s as if knowing the characters is secondary to seeing them graphically illustrated in a way that appeals to they eye.
Anderson’s appreciation of the comdedically absurd seems to be mediated by a newfound interest in subtlety that often makes it difficult to gain a sense of the character’s emotional cores through all the fancy cinematography. Maybe the elusiveness is a conscious thematic addition as the brothers bounce from one spiritual site to the next, completely unable to sit still without fighting over a belt long enough to think, let alone meditate or pray. The absence of subtitles is almost unnoticeable as we watch the characters fail to understand each other, or the places they’re visiting.
The movie only starts to hold emotional ground as the events that caused the familial split are revealed. The funeral of a stranger in a small Indian village gives the brothers cause for a much needed flashback to the death of their father and the disappearance of their mother. Only then does their trainride to reconciliation seem warranted.
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