The story begins on the Darjeeling Limited, the train that would take these brothers to temples, towns and all the "spiritual" hop-scotch tourists are supposed to be excited about. The oldest brother is set on a quest to bring closeness between estranged brothers, culminating on a visit to their mother, now a nun in rural India. This mother had run out on them since their father's tragic death from a pedestrian v. car accident a year back. Their quest is ludicrous, deliberately tacky and also fails in the end. The mother, out of supposed fear, leaves them once again, after showing them how to express their sorrow and anger "without words", in a scene where all 4 of them look at each other with meaningful expressions, but none of them uttering a sound, with heart-warming music filling in the silence. The next morning the 3 sons are disappointed with another runaway by their mother.
There are amusing minor characters throughout their trip. The captain of the train, a Sikh speaking perfect English, who fights off a poisonous snake with his kitchen spatula. There is an attractive Indian hostess, with whom Schwartzman has a fling on the train, with cigarette smoking (band on the train) as their binding hobby. B. Murray makes a cameo, as a businessman who misses out on the train ride because he carries too much baggage, despite his assertive rudeness and jumping of the queues.
The key event, which turns the 3 brothers' journey around, lies in the death of an Indian boy. This boy is also 1 of 3 brothers, who has a mishap over a crossing of a river. The central characters each tries to rescue a boy from drowning, but alas Brody fails to save his. They spend a good time mourning with the rural family, even though they don't speak their dialect. As they are about to leave, Brody appeals to one of the other Indian brothers rescued, that he did his best to save his brother. They are asked to stay and partake in the cremation funeral rites as honoured guests. After this event, along with a symbolic ritual devised by the brothers themselves with the burial of a peacock feather, finally binds the 3 somehow. They realise what it is like to be alive together and to have spent this precious time with the village in mourning. In particular, it leads the middle brother (Brody), to the realisation of the importance of his own, unborn child. The 3 begin to trust each other, no longer recounting confidential secrets made to each other, but openly sharing each others' problems.
The second last scene at the airport departures show the 3 brothers, each ringing a dear confidante, spouse, girlfriend in ordinal sequence and how they were able to encourage each other in dealing with those relations when they get home. It is quite a sweet moment. Of course, they end up ripping their return flight tickets and set off for another journey in India.
The film is slow, the humour is not the main focus, though it is there, the colours of scenery make an interest watch for someone used to our boring Sydney street styles. It does make a comment on how the customs of India seem to hold more spiritual meaning than that of their home land (America?). The brothers did have to go out to find, but only by pure coincidence, a meaning in their relationship and a resolution of their past sorrows from the loss of their father. There is no resolution with the runaway mother, she remains unredeemed by the writers. And interestingly, she became a nun in India, whose orphanage is threatened by a vicious man-eating tiger. Is this making a slighting comment on the Christian religion as a means of finding self-absolution? I'm probably reading too far.
As a Christian, the problem of resolution from old hurts and reconciliation from broken or just estranged relationships is important. The brothers find it in treasuring what they have now in life. We Christians can treasure what we do have, through the forgiveness that comes freely from God by the death of His only Son. And the relations that we have now are not temporary, so we are not driven by fear of loss, but by the wonderment of reconciliation now, continuing onto eternal relationships that will be made perfect. We can even forgive those who are not repentant or seeking to reconcile (like the runaway mother in the movie), because we have experienced a deep forgiveness with a personal God, whom we have rejected. We don't have to find it and hope it will happen by chance. God has reconciled this world to Himself through His Son (2Corinthians 5:18-19), according to His plan.
Not a bad film in the end, when read the right way. 3.5/5
1 comment:
I like your comment at the end. And I think the movie does show us the value of being in a family; in the India-setting the problems of modern alienation are distanced, and the Indian plains, people and music take us to a whole different place indeed, like going out to sea. Also, Wes Anderson really loved the soundtracks to Satyajit Ray's and James Ivory's films, Indian films. He saw how Ray wanted to tell 'personal stories that function ... like novels, and draw you in more in the ways a great book does than a movie.' One can see how Anderson probably tried to imitate that in Darjeeling.
The element of the lost parent is pretty prevalent in Anderson / Wilson movies. Max Fisher from Rushmore lost his mother at a young age; Eli Cash is parentless in The Royal Tenenbaums (and sends grades and pictures of himself to the Tenenbaum mother); and Ned Plimpton comes to find his estranged father Steve Zissou. This lost is always evident, one way or another, and this is really important to the films.
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