I quote myself so early in this review because I feel about the same way about "The Darjeeling Limited," with the proviso that this is a better film, warmer, more engaging, funnier and very surrounded by India, that nation of perplexing charm. The brothers, who have not been much in contact, have a reunion after one is almost killed in a motorcycle crash, and they take a journey on a train so wonderful I fear it does not really exist. (It is the fancy of the art director.)
The reunion is convened by Francis (Owen Wilson), whose head bandages make him look like an outtake from "The Mummy." Having nearly died (possibly intentionally), he now embraces life and wants to Really Get to Know his younger brothers. They are Peter (Adrien Brody), poised to divorce a wife he doesn't love when she announces she is pregnant, and Jack (Jason Schwartzman), who dials all the way home to eavesdrop on his former girlfriend's answering machine. "I want us to become brothers again," Francis vows, "and to become Enlightened."
They travel with a mountain of Louis Vuitton luggage, which means the movie will no doubt play this year's Louis Vuitton Hawaii International Film Festival, opening Oct. 18. Francis has an assistant, Brendan (Wally Wolodarsky), whose office is next to the luggage in the baggage car, from which he issues forth a daily itinerary from the computer and printer he has brought along. The document is encased in plastic, with the laminating machine he has also brought along. Insisting on this schedule is typical of Francis; he expects without question that his brothers will comply.
Francis is the compulsive type, which is why his younger brothers find it hard to be in the same room with him. They got enough of that from their mother. He announces that their train journey of reconciliation will be enriched by visits to all the principal holy places along the way. They are also enriched by their careless purchase of obscure medications that contain little magical mystery tours of their own.
One of the film's attractions is its Indian context; Anderson and his co-writers Schwartzman and Roman Coppola made a trip through India while they were writing the screenplay. It avoids obvious temptations to exoticism by surprising us; the stewardess on the train, for example, speaks standard English and seems American. This is Rita (Amara Karan); she comes round offering them a sweet lime drink, which is Indian enough, but later when Jack sticks his head out a train window, he sees her head sticking out, too, as she puffs on a cigarette. Soon they are in each other's arms, not very Indian of her.
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