The Darjeeling Limited
“The Darjeeling Limited” is a coy and standoffish movie. Director Wes Anderson hides authentic emotion behind ritualized behavior and kooky, referential images. He doesn’t let you tap into his characters’ buried pain; he makes you decode it. And he doesn’t seem to care whether you’re successful. “The Darjeeling Limited” follows three estranged brothers on a journey across India. They are clearly mourning their father’s death and their mother’s abandonment, but they address these issues only indirectly. Anderson would rather you notice that youngest brother Jack Whitman, played by Jason Schwartzman, remains barefoot throughout, like Paul McCartney on the cover of “Abbey Road.” What does it mean? Is Jack dead? Who cares? I lost patience with the movie during a critical flashback to the day the Whitman brothers buried their father. It’s Anderson’s best chance to be straight with the audience, but instead, the brothers just indulge in more tangential goofiness while wearing carefully coordinated outfits. Some might say Anderson is avoiding melodramatic cliché; I say he’s obfuscating. Among his previous movies, “The Darjeeling Limited” most closely resembles “The Royal Tenenbaums.” Both are precious constructs that mask their serious themes with forced whimsy. When he loosens his stylistic grip, Anderson can be a dynamite moviemaker; “Rushmore” remains the best example. Federico Fellini’s later movies made the term “Felliniesque” a pejorative. The same might be true of “Andersonesque.”
LISTEN: The Darjeeling Limited