A passage to india

And here is another review. I don't actually like doing reviews, but apparently uni LAPS THEM UP. Of the roman coppola film the darjeeling limited. really don't know why owen wilson appears in so many rubbish films if he could continue doing these. also as it was a review i was cautious of overly praising the film, despite loving it, and so i put on my cruel gloves and tapped away with my spiteful criticism to please the cold hearts of our university lectures. yes thats right i basically insulted jason schwartzman for a good mark. i'm mean.


“Do you think we could have been friends in real life, if we weren’t brothers?”. This is the setting for the odd and intricate film that is ‘The Darjeeling Limited’. Three brothers struggle through their dislike of each other, their murky pasts and spicy food on a journey that either makes you want a brother, want to travel, or want to move to another country where this film is promised never to be aired.

Written by Wes Anderson and Roman Coppola, the film takes place on ‘The Darjeeling Limited’, a train travelling through India with the metaphorical destination of brotherly peace and well-being. Adrien Brody, Jason Schwartzman and Owen Wilson play the three American brothers Peter, Jack and Francis, each rendered distressed and dysfunctional by their fathers untimely death. The oldest brother, played by Wilson, organised the meeting after the brothers had not seen each other in over a year.

Each brother is laden with individual woes, Wilson having a severely damaged face from a road accident, Brody with a wife back in America on the cusp of childbirth, and Schwartzman estranged from his girlfriend, played by a bitter and elusive Natalie Portman in the introductory mini film ‘Hotel Chevalier‘. However their assorted problems are all tied together and accentuated by the death of their father, a loss they have yet to come to terms with. The objective of the journey is for the three to become brothers again, “like we used to be“. Having not seen each other since their fathers funeral, the fraternal trio spend the journey bickering, suppressing their secrets, pursuing Indian stewardesses, trading prescription drugs, accosting poisonous snakes and slowly, but erratically, becoming the family they once were.

The journey, as expected in any road-film, takes many unanticipated detours, each event leading to a lesson learnt and each argument leading to a spiritual realisation. The rich culture of their Indian surroundings inevitably has a therapeutic effect on their heavy mindsets and soon Jack is even walking about with no shoes on. Oh how the diversity and beauty of the Indian countryside can even make a cold hard American feel!

In this sense the narrative can sometimes be difficult to digest, as each argument somehow leads to the trio being one step closer to becoming the brothers they once were, and each predicament they come across conveniently leading to a spiritual experience. The film accurately portrays a typical broken family and the trouble they have with living, but Anderson is less accurate in his portrayal of how these problems are solved. Not all family dramas can be fixed with a trip to India, a shag with a stewardess and a few heartfelt chats.

Something that cannot be criticised is the charming camera work. Hues of red and orange provide a specifically Indian atmosphere, translating the beauty of the country to the screen. The visual shots are often vibrant with colour and crammed with small objects and various trinkets. Anderson evidently prefers the complex to the simple, ensuring the audience’s eyes never wonder.

Vivid and strange, this is the film counterpart of Marmite - you will either love it or hate it. The constant symbolism and intense emotional context may be too much for your digestive transit, but it could also make your food go down much easier. The portrayal of family complexities are eerily realistic, thanks to the skilled acting of Wilson, Brody and Schwartzman and the visuals are mesmerising, stuffed with action, beauty and colour. The Darjeeling limited is like a jumble sale find - interesting, smells a bit strange, but has great possibilities.