"Darjeeling Limited" a torturous train ride

By Ray Bennett

VENICE, Italy (Hollywood Reporter) - The whimsical and insightful charm that Wes Anderson and his filmmaking pals have displayed in such films as "Rushmore" and "The Royal Tenenbaums" curdles ruinously in the Indian sun that shines so brightly in their smug and self-satisfied new film "The Darjeeling Limited."

Owen Wilson, Adrien Brody and Jason Schwartzman star as brothers on what is supposedly a spiritual journey to the subcontinent. Their father has been dead for a year and their mother (a cameo from Anjelica Huston), who has found religion there, discourages a visit and warns of a man-eating tiger in the vicinity, though it is never seen.

The eldest brother, Francis (Wilson), has planned a detailed itinerary, however, that will allow them to see their mother and on the way hit all the key Indian sources of spiritual renewal on brief railway stops aboard the titular train. If it's Rajasthan, it must be enlightenment.

What ensues is like a third-rate Hope and Crosby picture with no big laughs and nothing to say as the completely self-involved threesome ride the rails in a circle back to their dull and uninteresting lives. "Darjeeling" will need all the help it can get to find audiences beyond the stars' committed fans.

The pretensions surrounding this production begin with a 13-minute short film titled "Hotel Chavalier" that was screened ahead of the main feature at the Venice Film Festival. It will be shown at other festivals and on the Internet and be included on the eventual DVD, but it will not play in theaters when the picture is released.

Set in a hotel in Paris, the short film shows a brief encounter between the youngest brother, Jack (Schwartzman), and his on-and-off girlfriend (Natalie Portman). It has no significance, though, except as a platform for the great 1960s anthem "Where Do You Go to My Lovely?" by Peter Sarstedt.

The feature begins with middle brother Peter (Brody) catching the train at the last minute and joining his siblings in their first-class carriage. Childhood rivalries and irksome personality ticks immediately surface, though they all agree on the need for cigarettes and the best of India's over-the-counter medications.

The Darjeeling Limited is a train especially mocked up for the film, a hybrid of the old U.S. 20th Century Limited and the Orient Express with regional patterns and colors and not remotely like the air-conditioned models of modern India. The boys jump off and on quite a bit and run up small hills trying to communicate with ancient spirits.