THE DARJEELING LIMITED

(Fox Searchlight Pictures)
Runtime: 91 min

My reaction to The Darjeeling Limited is “Does such trains -let alone journey-ever existed?”, or perhaps it is only in the imagination of Director Wes Anderson? If it is imagination, surely it’s a colourful one, with splendid colours filled the screen.

The jokes are difficult to digest just like The Royal Tennenbaum, although it is still funny. It is about three brothers, Francis (Owen Wilson), Peter (Adrien Brody), and Jack (Jason Schwartzman) who had not seeing each other since the death of their father.

They are escaping from something: Francis almost have himself killed in an accident, Peter’s girlfriend is pregnant (that was suppose to be the tragedy?) and Jack cannot leave his break-ups easily.

Is it really tragic what had happened with the trio? I don’t think so, but they had to escape, to India (where the colours are more vibrant), to fulfill their thirst on spiritual journey (Why not Vegas?) and they embark themselves on a train, a surrealistic train in which they have to dwell the same compartement together. As expected, the journey goes awry with lots of distraction here and there. At the end of their journey is their mother, Patricia (Anjelica Huston), who also list “escape from reality” as one of her hobby, makes us understand why these kids have the “escapist” genes. Each of these characters has odd features. Francis's face is heavily and artistically bandaged, Jack is very jumpy and Peter collects their father’s stuff.

There's also the constant presence of 11 pieces of luggage - a legacy of their father with which they are unwilling to part and in the end of the film, they throw away the luggage, perhaps as a symbol of letting go anything that has burdened them in the past.

Short movie fans might like the prologue for The Darjeeling Limited - a 12-minute short called Hotel Chevalier where Natalie Portman and Jason Schwartzman engage in an odd romantic conversation and Natalie bares (almost) all and brings the audience new information about Jack’s character. This is a tale of emotional healing through a journey, where the escapist finds out that there’s no cure for life after all.