As summer creeps steadily into autumn, enjoyable moviegoing experiences seem to fall away even more quickly than the browning leaves in my back yard. In a way, that’s why I haven’t been all that active posting lately (and I promise, I’ll keep trying to remedy that inertia). There’s little impetus to go to the theatre, and some movies I see don’t wind up warranting review (e.g. Good Luck Chuck, * 1/2). Thank goodness, then, for Wes Anderson, purveyor of fine art house cinema, whose meticulously constructed style of filmmaking returns with The Darjeeling Limited.

Limited, co-written with Rushmore star Jason Schwartzman, follows the estranged Whitman brothers on a train voyage across India. Gathered by eldest brother Francis (Owen Wilson), an over-planner who spends the movie in facial bandages after an implied suicidal motorcycle crash, the trip is meant to help the brothers find peace with each other and reconnect with their mother, who, after the death of her husband, entered an Indian convent. When the trip is derailed by a series of unsavory events involving youngest brother Jack (Schwartzman) and a waitress and middle child Peter (Adrien Brody) hoarding their father’s belongings, they are kicked off the train and forced to start a different journey altogether.

The first thing one notes while experiencing an Anderson movie is his visual style, and while it is unmistakably present and further perfected in The Darjeeling Limited, it’s his craft of storytelling that shines through. This is Anderson’s most emotionally mature movie after The Royal Tenenbaums, a connection that is no surprise considering the heavy connection of theme. The brothers represent a broken family not unlike the Tenenbuams – one can quickly connect Peter, who expects to divorce his wife despite loving both her and their unborn child, to Ben Stiller’s Chas Tenenbaum, who struggles to raise his children after losing his wife. Jack, meanwhile, is not entirely like Wilson’s Eli Cash, as both yearn for loves they can’t fully have.

Brody stands as an outstanding addition to Anderson’s world, mixing deadpan delivery and perfect comic timing into a cocktail that compliments the director’s style. Wilson and Schwartzman continue to flourish under Anderson’s tutelage, the former’s neurosis and depression is real even when you put aside the actor’s recent real-life troubles.

The laughs come early and often in The Darjeeling Limited, but Anderson still carries the dramatic arc well, especially after the brothers are booted from the titular train. The time the Whitman boys spend in a small Indian village are particularly touching. The weight of it all does make the movie feel back heavy, but Anderson still navigates the waters well and puts together an economical film, even when you add in the 13-minute prologue Hotel Chevalier, downloadable now from iTunes (it’s free, and Natalie Portman’s in it).

It’s been a while since I’ve seen Rushmore and Bottle Rocket, and so it’s difficult to place The Darjeeling Limited in a ranked list of Anderson’s work. But it’s quite easy to say that it’s a masterpiece and by far the best film you’ll see this fall.

Rating: * * * * 1/2 of 5

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