Depending on the viewer's eye, Wes Anderson's latest could be viewed as either a Fabergé egg - beautiful and ornate, but annoyingly useless - or an exquisitely made heirloom - overly crafted but possessing genuine artistic and emotional significance.
The 90-minute, visually titillating The Darjeeling Limited"" follows three brothers, played by two of Anderson's pets and one newcomer to the director's films - Owen Wilson, Jason Schwartzman and Adrien Brody, respectively - who attempt to repair their fractured relationship after their father's death by taking a trip to India to visit their estranged mother.
Visually, the director's set and costume choices nearly overwhelm each frame. The intensely blue train and Indian jewel tones seduce the viewer's eyes. Francis, played by Wilson, has been in a recent motorcycle accident, his face swathed in bandages. Jack (Schwartzman) dons a saffron-yellow robe and a disproportionately large moustache. Peter, Brody's character, spends most of the train ride in a button-down shirt and pink boxers.
After the brothers are ejected from the train for inappropriate behavior, along with an abundance of their late father's heavy designer-label luggage, they come across three male youngsters on the verge of drowning. Saving two of three, the brothers continue along their ""spiritual"" journey by participating in the village's funeral for the young boy.
Here, however, Anderson arguably errs. When faced with the decision to ponder these sobering emotions of loss and grief or veer back to his artistic representations, material eccentricities and expressive, ironic soundtrack, Anderson chooses the latter.
Teetering on the precipice of accepting their own father's death, the brothers observe the Indian father's mourning while Anderson again fills his camera angles with objects of material interest - bright sky, Marc Jacobs branding, sumptuously colored costuming.
Anderson is either unable to peer directly into the characters' raw emotion or is aiming for irony. Even as grief consumes the Indian family and slowly gnaws at the brothers' flawed psyches, the characters' tangible environmental surroundings prevail.
Similar to how the weather can be pleasantly cool, sunny and cloudless on a day like Sept. 11, 2001, perhaps Anderson's India can still be a dazzlingly beautiful locale in the face of spiritual floundering and human mortality.
But, not wishing to give a potentially flawed directing method too much credence, the thoughtful viewer must consider a recurring directorial pattern - this seesawing between aesthetics and emotional substance is akin to Anderson's other films, namely ""The Darjeeling Limited's"" direct antecedent, ""The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou.""
Notably, however, as Anderson continues making films, he appears to grow more comfortable with addressing suffering in a more realistic - but still unique - manner. Specifically, father-to-be Peter's distress at being unable to save the young Indian boy, communicated by the simplistic four-word line, ""I couldn't save mine,"" aptly depicts a moment of human tragedy. This understated style, differing from Anderson's typical wry poignancy, is one the director could use to greater effect in future films.
Additionally, Anderson's concept of family is central to most of his films, and the brotherly relations are seen clearly in the nuances of their interactions, such as Francis' elderly brother organization or Jack's youngest brother waywardness.
Whatever Anderson's imperfect method - irony or the inability to tackle genuine feelings - ""The Darjeeling Limited"" succeeds in many other ways, through the strength of its actors, devotion to scenery and subtleties of dialogue. Preceded by the excellent short, ""Hotel Chevalier,"" which includes Natalie Portman's much-buzzed-about nude scene and clarifies Jack's current situation, ""The Darjeeling Limited"" is a gem whether overwrought or perfectly cut.
