The Justice

Adrian Brody, Jason Schwartzman and Owen Wilson play three brothers who take a spiritual journey in India to heal their bonds of brotherhood. James Hamilton/The Associated Press

Follow my advice: Take a break from midterms, grab some friends and go see The Darjeeling Limited, Wes Anderson's latest film at the Embassy in Waltham. From the director and writer of The Royal Tenenbaums and The Life Aquatic, The Darjeeling Limited is, as expected, basically a quintessential Anderson film. Damaged characters, melancholy storylines and emotional soundtracks combine to create the darker tones below the light and comical movie Anderson inevitably produces.

Francis (Owen Wilson), Peter (Adrian Brody) and Jack Whitman (Jason Schwartzman) are three brothers still lost with grief a year after their father's death. While their mother, Angelica Huston, has run off to become a nun, the three brothers Whitman have not spoken to each other since the funeral to which they arrived late together. A year later, at Francis' request, they meet on the Darjeeling Limited train for a spiritual journey through India. The extremely wealthy brothers pack their belongings in their father's old and orange monogrammed suitcases-literally dragging their emotional baggage along with them.

Rare as it may be, Owen Wilson plays a real character, not "Owen Wilson," and he is good at it. Intentionally or not, by covering Wilson's nose with a bandage throughout the film, Anderson has covered the slow, immature and carefree Wilson of movies past. Wilson plays the physically damaged, controlling and continuously insecure Francis Whitman, the oldest of the three. A successful businessman of some kind, Francis brings along his assistant Brendan, who provides them with laminated itineraries each morning of the ride.

The most conventional of the three, middle child Peter Whitman, is a married man expecting his first child, although he neglects to tell his wife he is going to India. Youngest brother Jack is in the midst of a love-hate relationship with his girlfriend (played by Natalie Portman in the short-film prequel to TDL, "Hotel Chevalier") and hasn't been to America since his father's funeral. A short-story writer, the majority of Jack's "fictional" work is based entirely on his brother's lives.

Continued...

Page 1 of 2 next >

Article Tools