The Stranger

In keeping with Wes Anderson’s recent trajectory, The Darjeeling Limited is maddening. There are, as always, moments when you feel you’re watching the work of an indisputable genius; unfortunately, those moments are tempered, and occasionally overwhelmed, by long stretches of inane chatter and reflexive quirkiness. Stylistically the film is a thing of beauty, with India’s vibrant colors providing much for Anderson’s widescreen lens to capture. But as in The Royal Tenenbaums and, most glaringly, The Life Aquatic, that style is squandered on a story that refuses to move beyond a superficial sheen. That’s not to say that The Darjeeling Limited is a bad movie—it’s half bad. Following three estranged brothers (Owen Wilson, Adrien Brody, and Schwartzman) on “some sort of spiritual quest” through India, the film’s early moments onboard the cramped Darjeeling Limited rail line are strange and wonderful. Once the boys are sent off the train, however, The Darjeeling Limited can’t help but disintegrate. By Bradley Steinbacher

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