Oh-so-precious-trust-fund director Wes Anderson (“The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou”) doesn’t so much make movies as he assembles a cast to work from slapdash “meta” scripts that result in self-congratulatory hodgepodges of cinematic expression.
Owen Wilson, Jason Schwartzman and Adrien Brody have the dubious honor of playing three estranged (and implausible) brothers that go on a soul-searching bitch fest across India with an unexplained number of goofy matching suitcases.
The male bonding occurs largely during a sleeper-car train ride aboard the “Darjeeling Limited” where the brothers’ individual quirks come into high relief. The youngest brother Francis (Wilson) wears a fresh bandage on his head and face to cover self-inflicted wounds he earned in a motorcycle crash.
Peter (Brody) struggles with the fact of his absent wife’s unwanted pregnancy, while eldest brother Jack (Schwartzman) quells his obsession over a former girlfriend by indulging in spontaneous sex with a train stewardess (Amara Karan).
The film’s over-pronounced theme of “healing” is put through so many artificial plot points that there isn’t any narrative oxygen to support it. “The Darjeeling Limited” is a dud where even its attempts at slapstick comedy fall flat.
Rated R. 91 mins.
