'The Darjeeling Limited' is a family affair
MOVIE REVIEW
by KEN BARTOLOTTA Reporter

The idea of estranged family members reconnecting and finally discovering their roots is the sort of the thing that has been done to death in Hollywood.

It's also a theme that director Wes Anderson has poured his creative talent into time and time again, and his latest film, "The Darjeeling Limited," offers similar fare.

Yet Anderson's take on the subject provides a freshness and perspective that keep his work from seeming stale, an obvious example being "The Royal Tenenbaums."

Dysfunctional families aren't the only topics Anderson seems intent on revisiting. There is the coming-of-age conquest of the man-child, random Rolling Stones songs and, of course, Owen Wilson.

This time around, Wilson is joined by onscreen brothers Adrien Brody and Jason Schwartzman. The trio has reluctantly agreed to take a spiritual journey together across India following the death of their father.

Wilson plays the doting older brother, attempting in a futile way to fill the void left by his father. He decides what his siblings will eat for dinner; keeps their passports, fearing their own lack of responsibility; and sets an itinerary that he hardly follows.

Brody's role is that of the middle child in full rebellious mode, something that is obviously a direct reaction to the passing of his father.

Schwartzman's character is a womanizing writer, and as the youngest brother, he seems to have fewer reservations about Wilson's character doing the majority of the thinking.

In these characters, we see another constant of Anderson's films, that of the dignified derelict, the sort of individuals who walk with a certain air of stumbling confidence in spite of their glaring flaws.

You always get the sense in Anderson's films that these characters are more or less on their last dime and at wit's end, but they still manage a well-spoken aura complemented by a nice suit and a loyal assistant who is always in tow.

This time around, that assistant is Brendan, a bald man who may or may not be faking a disease as a means to explain his lack of hair.

If any of this makes absolutely no sense to you, you're not in the minority. There's an incoherent ramble to the film that is marked by no definitive beginning or ending, but as the old adage goes, it's really the journey, not the destination, that matters.

It's hard to tell what exactly these brothers are in search of - or what the point of the movie is.

There are vague comments on the invasiveness of Americans in foreign lands and a good take on the idea that the best way to find yourself is to first become completely lost, but overall, it's probably just Anderson doing what he does best.

That is, of course, making films with quirky dialogue and avant-garde acting and doling out the obligatory royalties to Mick Jagger and Keith Richards.

e-mail: kenb@beenews.com