NYFF: The Darjeeling Limited

By Katey Rich

The brothers Whitman share a rare laugh on the streets of India.

We're used to seeing Wes Anderson with a familiar cadre of his collaborators�the Wilson brothers, Anjelica Huston, Bill Murray, etc.�but some newcomers joined him onstage at the New York Film Festival press conference following the screening of The Darjeeling Limited. Anderson's co-writers Jason Schwartzman (who starred in Rushmore) and Roman Coppola (a second-unit director on The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou) were old faces, and Waris Ahluwalia had a small role in The Life Aquatic, but new to the party were actors Adrien Brody and Amara Karan.

The Darjeeling Limited tells the rambling, heartfelt story of three American brothers (Brody, Schwartzman and Owen Wilson) traveling northern India by way of the colorful, rickety train of the title. Oldest brother Francis Whitman (Wilson) wants them to have a spiritual journey, but years of rivalries, each brother's personal agenda and an unexpected tragedy get in the way. Karan plays a stewardess on the train who falls�kind of�for Jack's (Schwartzman) uneasy charm, while Ahluwalia is a humorless steward constantly trying to kick the brothers off the train for their persistent rule-breaking. Anderson and his collaborators took a number of questions on the film, discussing their inspiration for making it, creating familial ties, and the challenges of working on a set that moved.

Schwartzman and Natalie Portman share a moment in Hotel Chevalier.

Before shooting of The Darjeeling Limited even began, Anderson, Coppola and Schwartzman teamed up for the short "Hotel Chevalier," filmed in Paris in 2005. Schwartzman stars as Jack Whitman, the same character he plays in Darjeeling, an American writer living in a Paris hotel and awaiting a visit from his ex-girlfriend (Natalie Portman). Packed with Anderson's trademark visual flair and quirks, "Hotel Chevalier" neatly sums up Jack's character�a crucial introduction for The Darjeeling Limited�while also telling a succinct little love story all its own. The short showed before the press screening of Darjeeling (titled, simply, "Part One"), but the studio doesn't plan to release it along with the feature.

"It took me a moment to figure out how I want to do this," Anderson said. "In the end, we have the short on iTunes now, so people who are interested can see that before they see the movie, or after they see the movie. At a certain point we are going to add the short back in with the movie. I sort of like the idea that different people can see the movie in different ways."

After making "Chevalier" with no studio backing, Anderson, Schwartzman and Coppola traveled to India to write The Darjeeling Limited. Anderson noted Jean Renoir's 1951 film The River as an influence: "I managed to see it because Martin Scorsese had gotten a print of it, and he thought I would like it. When he showed it to me, it was sort of the culmination of something that had been brewing in my mind," he said. "When we were writing, Roman and Jason and I, we were traveling in India. The last night of our first trip to India together, we watched The River together. That was part of what got us going."

Each of the actors took a moment to explain the impact shooting on location in India had on them; Karan, who makes her feature debut here, said, "I think that what was enlightening about being in India is just reminding yourself, getting some perspective on your life, being in a completely different environment forces you to think about where you live and the background that you've come from." Brody, who plays middle brother Peter, appealed to the hometown crowd: "I grew up here in New York. I thought New York was a very unpredictable place, but when you get to India, it's a very different story."

"I'm enlightened already, so it was a big waste of time for me," deadpanned Ahluwalia, who also admitted that, traveling with newcomers like Anderson "was rediscovering India. To see it through their eyes was incredible."

Brody, Schwartzman and Wilson squeeze into their train berth.

The film tackles sibling relationships in a distinct way, from elegant, slow-mo shots of the brothers riding a motorcycle three to a seat to the hilarious dialogue, quoted in the trailer: "You don't love me!" "Yes I do!" "I love you too but I'm going to mace you in the face!" Schwartzman pointed out that with the close quarters on the shoot�many of the three brothers' scenes take place in a cramped railway suite�the sibling dynamic developed naturally.

"We really didn't leave the set between shots, there was really nowhere to go, it was on a train. We just stayed with each other, played games with each other, rehearsed lines," he explained. "We were three American actors living in India with nowhere to go but towards each other. It really felt like family being on set, because of the camaraderie between us."

Brody also pointed out some extracurricular activities off the set that helped create a brotherly bond. "They're wonderful guys, so it wasn't difficult to connect to Owen or Jason. There were a lot of badminton games, so we felt some rivalry there."

"I never felt rivalry," Schwartzman interjected.

"Well, you're a better player," Brody responded.

The reviews are already out for Darjeeling�the film opened the NYFF on Friday and played in other New York City theatres over the weekend. As with The Life Aquatic, Anderson's quirks and obsessions are maddening to some but endearing to more. A.O. Scott at the New York Times calls it "a treasure: an odd, flawed, but nonetheless beautifully handmade object as apt to win affection as to provoke annoyance." Slate's Dana Stevens is harsher, calling a key part of the film "Anderson at his worst: self-serious, aestheticizing, and morally yucky." Elsewhere in Slate is a fascinating article detailing Anderson's touchy treatment of race, in this and all his films.

What's certain, though, is that The Darjeeling Limited is something new for Anderson; whether that's just visually or also emotionally depends on the viewer. For me, it didn't pack the same emotional wallops as Rushmore or The Royal Tenenbaums, or even the same visual glee, but every time I look back on the film I'm genuinely struck by the relationships between the brothers. Anderson works well with the colors and natural chaos of India�a nice departure from his usual, heavily art-directed style�and all of the actors jump into the flow nicely. I've always been perfectly willing to fall for Anderson's hipster-detached storytelling, even when he slows down the film for the umpteenth time to the tune of a Kinks song. Despite all the flaws in Darjeeling�its truly problematic relationship with spiritualism and race, poorly defined characters�I was drawn in by the Whitman boys, and hope some other viewers will be too. While Anderson still hasn't managed to top Rushmore, Darjeeling is still a ride worth taking.

Not even prayer can solve these family disagreements.