Wes Anderson is an artiste — he creates tableaux vivants, or living pictures rather than ordinary movie scenes. Each seemingly unimportant detail is carefully crafted and meticulously selected. Take, for example, the custom-made set of luggage (a crucial prop which is as much a character in the movie as any of the Whitman brothers) that WA asked friend Marc Jacobs, creative director for LV, to create the film. But that's not all...

She's like a rainbow
Set in "spicy" India, the movie makes use of the characterisitic boldness of India's rich fabrics. The Whitmans (portrayed by Adrien Brody, Owen Wilson and Jason Schwartzman in a highbrow ode to the Three Stooges), attired in drab greys, somber blacks and pale neutrals, are in stark contrast to the teeming colors of the backdrops against which they move. Their universe on board the train is drenched in vibrant technicolor hues of deepest turquoise, emerald, ruby red, shocking pink, golden yellow and bright orange. WA pours the color on so thick to provide juxtaposition for the cathartic middle segment of the movie in which he populates the screen with the non-colors of the plain village huts set against the desert sand, the quotidian garb of the locals and most prominently, the gleaming white funerary robes in the burial scene. For a large swath of this part, WA even minimizes dialogue, preferring to use the actors movements and expressions to convey an intense sentimentality. The color and dialogue vacuum he creates echoes the harsh, arid conditions of the desert landscape as well as the Whitmans internal struggle for family unity.

I've got baggage...
11 pieces to be exact. The death of James L. Whitman has damaged each of the brothers emotionally and alienated then from one another. So Francis (Wilson) takes it upon himself to coordinate and finance a spiritual voyage for himself and his brothers. As part of their inheritance, each Whitman son receieved his part of JLW's travel trousseau. Each piece is numbered for easy organizing and monogrammed with the Whitman patriarch's initials, J.L.W. The leather set is embossed with western motifs that have been hand-painted. Prickly cacti and fearless cowboys atop bucking broncos frolic on the saddle-colored leather, fatefully beckoning the brothers on to their zany adventures. The set (and the trio of brothers) is reunited aboard the Darjeeling Limited, each brother bringing with him his prized portion (an obvious reference to the emotional "baggage" they're all carrying on their "spiritual voyage"). Whether the brothers Whitman are dragging the valises across the desert or piling them on the roof rack of an Indian bus or even when being carried atop the turbaned heads of Indian valets, bags 1-11 are as easy to shake off as a house arrest bracelet on a paroled ex-con. Why would anyone want to lug these cumbersome valises across the Indian subcontinent?? Because it's all part of WA's
brilliant, quirky mise en scene. And it makes the final scene that much more poignant...

Quirky is such a funny word
The film is intelligently comic thanks to the idiosyncracies WA crafts for his characters, which range from repeated phrases to endless occurrences of deja vu. Things that would otherwise seem totally odd work in WA's world; it transcends suspension of disbelief. So we find it OK that Jack Whitman spends the entire movie barefoot even when rummaging through an Indian bazaar. We forget to wonder why, for example, does Peter "rubby" Whitman (Brody) continue to wear his father's glasses (with his prescription still on them) when they're obviously causing him strong migraine headaches? It's because we identify the dorky parts of ourselves in these oddities that they evoke laughter, pathos and the whole range of emotions we feel for the brothers. WA creates such a smart web of idiosyncracies, daring us not to chuckle or get teary-eyed at the oh-so-human foibles of the Whitman clan.

October 16, 2007