The Darjeeling Limited - A Review

I just watched a movie. It was called "The Darjeeling Limited." I'm going to attempt to summarize it here and give my opinion. Wow, I haven't written anything in a long time and it feels like my brain is a swing-set that has been sitting out in the rain for 3 months and then left to dry and rust. So here it is; squeaky swings and all. I write mostly as an attempt to understand what the heck I just watched.

The movie opens with a strange short film set in Paris. However, I'd like to think of it more of an additional scene rather than a short film because it played out like a scene and only made sense in light of part II. Normally, I would think that a short film with it's own title (Hotel Chevalier) would at least have some sort of self-encompassing storyline. This short film would have none of it. In this short film, we witness a character, obviously disillusioned, sitting alone in his hotel. He's watching old movies and getting grilled cheese sandwiches via room service. His lack of expression and monotone voice tell a story of their own. Then he gets a phone call. A lady friend is coming for a surprise visit. We soon find out that there had been a previous romance with her. And we soon find out that this is why he is disillusioned. She has obviously hurt him in some way and this is likely the reason for his self-imposed exile to a hotel room in Paris where he listens to cheesy, obscure music about how great Paris is.

And that is the end of the film. Not very telling. Nor even suspenseful.

On to part II; the real movie I went to see; The Darjeeling Limited. I figure any movie with a train staged in India must be interesting. The story begins as three brothers, Jack, Peter, and oh gosh I forgot the other guy's name... Owen Wilson, are setting off on a journey together in India. They haven't seen each other in a while. They all have separate lives and you get the impression that they don't really want to be together anyway. But there's some sort of mission to be accomplished. One wants to connect to God, one wants get away from his reality at home, and one just wants to have sex.

Owen Wilson has planned out the entire journey with the help of his assistant, Brennan, who provides a daily itinerary for the trip in India. As they continue on their journey, they each make very weak attempts to accomplish their goals. But their apparent lack of follow-through only haunt them the whole time. The three stooges make these guys look like geniuses. They soon decide it's not worth the trouble. Except for one small detail that Owen didn't tell them. The reason he has invited them to India in the first place to visit their estranged mother whom they haven't seen in a very long time and who has also exiled herself to a foreign country. Only she didn't even go to her husband's funeral back in the States.

The mother is the most interesting character in the movie. She has moved to this mountain in India to be a Catholic missionary. When her sons ask her why she didn't even come home for the funeral, she simply states "These people need me." Brilliantly, her son looks at her and says that there are other people that need her as well. The motivations of this woman are obviously flawed. She has left behind her sons and husband to "help" these Indian people. Her attempt at help is no help at all. It's an escape for her. She has left the people most dear to her own heart to help these people she knows nothing of. Her life has become a formal expression of faith and love amid an attempt to escape. She has left her reality to create a new one. Yet her care for her sons is still apparent during their visit.

And in a way, the sons are seeing a reflection of themselves. They have each attempted their own escapes at reality in different ways. One has done it through moving away to a foreign country, one by attempting suicide on a motorcycle and one through a relationship.

But all are failed attempts. Reality bites in spite of, and sometimes because of, attempted escapes. And each have the scars to show. Each attempt at escape only resulted in further scaring; in Owen's case quite literally. Even their attempt at this spiritual journey has only made the reality more real. And, in the end, this is what they come to realize.

At the end, they throw away their symbolic luggage of idealism and jump on the train of reality. And just as you realize it, each of the characters in the movie pass by you. Each in their own train car of life with their own realities. But their all on the same train headed in the same direction. They all have different realities, different stories, different setting, but they all have a common destination. "What is it?" you ask. I don't know. I'll have to watch it and again to figure it out. Maybe we're not supposed to know.

Oh, and that short film that opened the movie? Well, the character, Jack, who is prone to writing short stories, decides to write this woman out of his life. With his new insight, he's aware that it wasn't the woman that hurt him. It was his escapism and the woman was just a means of bursting his bubble.