The Darjeeling Limited (20th Century Fox, $29.99) — is one of Wes Anderson's funniest films. Perhaps paradoxically, it's also his most grown-up.
Owen Wilson, Adrien Brody and Jason Schwartzman star as three brothers who embark on a trip through India on the titular train in search of their mother and themselves. Well, that's what they end up doing, anyway — Mr. Wilson's character has tricked his two brothers into joining him on his spiritual search. The trio have barely spoken to each other since their father's funeral a year before.
Each of the Whitman brothers is suffering from some kind of pain, in addition to the grief of their father's death. Francis (Mr. Wilson) has a bandaged face and an unconvincing story about how it got that way. Peter (Mr. Brody) is happily married, but the panicked father-to-be inexplicably leaves for India without telling his wife. Jack (Mr. Schwartzman) is obsessed with his ex-girlfriend and has a talent nobody seems to take very seriously. "Want to read a short story I wrote in France?" he asks his brothers. "How long is it?" Francis wants to know first.
"The Darjeeling Limited" is a hilarious but poignant film. As Mr. Anderson's movies always are, it's also filled to the brim with wonderful things to look at.
The director's visual charm is nowhere more apparent, though, than in "Hotel Chevalier," the short film that shows Jack in a Paris hotel room just before the action of "Darjeeling." You should watch this prologue before the feature film. Here, you'll discover just why Jack is so besotted with his ex, played by Natalie Portman (in what was famously her first nude scene).
Besides the feature and the short, the DVD contains a 22-minute behind-the-scenes featurette. For those of us who marvel at the gorgeous visual quality of Mr. Anderson's world, we'll take any look into the making of it we can get. This one shows how they managed to get a film crew into the tight quarters of the train set.
Things We Lost in the Fire (Paramount, $29.99 for DVD, $39.99 for HD DVD) — The English-language debut of accomplished Danish director Susanne Bier isn't as subtle and heartbreaking as her last European film, "After the Wedding." However, "Things" is still a moving look at grief and guilt that's well worth the watch. Halle Berry stars as a woman who loses her saintly husband (David Duchovny) and, at first reluctantly, takes on the project of helping his best friend (Benicio Del Toro), a recovering drug addict, put his own life back together. Both DVD versions of the film include some deleted scenes.
The Love Boat: Season One, Volume One (Paramount, $36.98) — Saturday nights now are pretty much a television wasteland — there's nothing much worth staying home to watch. That wasn't always the case, however. The escapist pairing of "The Love Boat" and "Fantasy Island" was a ratings bonanza for ABC in the 1970s and '80s. "The Love Boat," created by late schlock-TV king Aaron Spelling, finally floats onto DVD next week with the first half of the first season on three discs.
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