Darjeeling Limited attempts quiet spirituality

The Darjeeling Limited, directed by Wes Anderson and written by Anderson along with Roman Coppola and Jason Schwartzman, begins with Hotel Chevalier, a short film and prequel to the feature.

Natalie Portman and Jason Schwartzman star in this less-than-mediocre short which is tangentially related to The Darjeeling Limited.

Set in a hotel room in Paris, the short centers around Portman and Schwartzman, former lovers meeting for an unfulfilling tryst.

Though steeped in pretty shots and clever camerawork, Chevalier suffers most from misguided acting from both stars.

Though beautiful and charming, Portman lacks the emotional weight carried by Anderson's other characters.

Despite the bruises on her body, ostensibly from a new lover, Portman appears unaware of her character's history. She is instead content to pose and smile her way through the film while inexplicably gnawing on a toothpick, a quirk that seemed more an arbitrary crutch than an active choice.

The lovers share zero chemistry and exchange some of the most awkward and uncomfortable kissing and foreplay captured on film. Luckily, the short bore no implications for the feature.

The Darjeeling Limited, set in modern-day India, begins with a slow-motion shot of Bill Murray, star of all of Anderson's films (save Bottle Rocket), running after a train. He misses it and is simultaneously outrun by Peter Whitman, played by Adrien Brody, a newcomer to the guild of Wes Anderson actors.

Fans may speculate that this opening sequence signals Brody's character outrunning age, his character's dead father or perhaps is a friendly wink-nod gesture proclaiming "Bill's sitting this one out, but Adrien's got it covered."

In any case Peter meets his two brothers already onboard, Frances Whitman (Owen Wilson) and Jack Whitman (Jason Schwartzman). The three have not spoken in a year and have been summoned to India by Frances to share a "spiritual journey."

Also onboard are Frances' "personal assistant," Brendan, played by Wallace Wolodarsky and Rita, a beautiful stewardess, played by the lovely Amara Karan.

These supporting characters surround the brothers and provide varying degrees of comic relief - some of the movie's funniest moments are derived from Wilson's deadpan chastising of the mildly pathetic Brendan.As the brothers barrel across India they make hurried stops at various temples and spiritual sites.

In the midst of their frenetic journey, they begin to share their lives with one another but only while bickering and commanding one brother to "not tell" the third. Peter reveals his wife's pregnancy, Jack beds the stewardess and Frances eventually cops to attempting suicide, explaining the bandages on his face (oh the irony!).

All the while the three indulge in brother Frances' barely legal, over-the-counter painkillers, dulling both their emotional pain and their supposedly growing spirits.

Up to this point, the film, like the journey it depicts, feels a little aimless, a little farcical and even a little self-indulgent. No doubt the brothers' banter is amusing, and Wilson in particular showcases his ability to portray idiosyncratic characters with deft comic skill. But in some sense, the movie doesn't quite start until the brothers are booted from the train for harboring a poisonous snake.

After they are expelled from The Darjeeling Limited, the eponymous train of the movie, they are met with three young Indian brothers crossing a dangerous stream. When the young boys are swept into the current, the Whitman brothers each attempt to rescue one. Peter's boy drowns, and in that moment, the men's spirtual journey actually begins.

They escort the living boys and their dead brother back to their tiny village. Gone are the loud marketplaces and vibrant colors that typified the Indian landscape prior. Instead, simple huts and white-clad villagers embrace the men and invite them to the boy's funeral. There, the Whitman brothers simultaneously relive (in flashback) their father's funeral that took place one year before.

The jarring shift in time and place, from India to Manhattan, reveals the source of the brothers' shared angst surrounding their dead father and absent mother, making the viewer aware that if the beginning of the film seemed like a farce, well, that's because it was: an intentional glossing of spiritual growth and brotherly love. Instead those ideals exist in a shared moment of tragedy and recollection, touchingly conveyed by the carefully written screenplay.

Eventually the brothers leave the village and pick up their shallow journey where they left it, boarding another almost identical train.

They arrive at a convent where their mother has been aiding local villagers and confront her regarding her absence from their lives.

Though Anjelica Huston is nearly perfect as a probably well-intentioned but "full-of-it" mom, her brief inclusion in the film's final minutes signals that their journey had nothing to do with her at all.

The film ends simply with no professions of brotherhood or eternal friendship, just a sense that something meaningful was shared among the Whitman brothers, something they might never discuss again but will doubtlessly remember for a long while.

Fans of Wes Anderson's movies will enjoy the film's obvious links to reality - the three Whitman brothers are almost certainly modeled after Anderson's constant collaborators, the three Wilson brothers (Owen, Luke and Andrew).

This connection is made all the more obvious by Jack Whitman writing short stories based directly on his brothers' lives and insisting, "All these characters are fictional."

However Wes Anderson neophytes can also enjoy a beautifully written story of three brothers and the quiet moments we share with other people that, if we are lucky, illuminate our lives in the deeply human and profoundly sweet light that Anderson always seems capable of projecting on the screen.