Three battling brothers, who haven't spoken in the year since their father's funeral, flail and rail and bond on a trek across India in Wes Anderson's latest comic oddity. Control-freak Francis (Owen Wilson) has brought along a secretary to provide them with daily itineraries, while angsty Peter (Adrien Brody) is intent on running away from his wife's pregnancy. Perpetually barefoot Jack (co-scripter Jason Schwartzman), meanwhile, is trying to turn a recently failed relationship into a short story.

That relationship (with Natalie Portman) is depicted not in the film itself, but in a Web flick (requires iTunes) that the filmmaker is urging everyone to see before they see Darjeeling Limited. Apart from having thus created the first road-picture homework assignment, Anderson (Rushmore, Royal Tennenbaums) isn't breaking new ground here. But he and his actors appear to be having a larkish good time — while illuminating a message that amounts to "Life's easier when you get rid of your baggage."

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