"I love you too, but I'm gonna mace you in the face," shouts Jack Whitman at his two fighting brothers who are rolling around on the floor, gripping each other in a headlock. It's a line that gets right to the heart (or eyes) of a story that features India, luggage, trains, a cobra in a box, Owen Wilson, and Peter Sarstedt's 'Where Do You Go To (My Lovely)', but is really about family — just like every other Wes Anderson film.

And even though the director of 'The Royal Tenenbaums' and 'The Life Aquatic' gets accused of remaking the same film — just moving the location from New York to underwater to, now, India; not even bothering to change the cast much — 'The Darjeeling Limited' finds him breaking new ground. And not just because he's on a different continent.

Set largely on a train headed across the deserts of Rajasthan, it's about the three estranged Whitman brothers on a "spiritual voyage of discovery". At least that's what mildly obsessive and slightly misguided oldest brother Francis (Wilson) will have you believe. After a near-death accident, he's taken it upon himself to organise the trip with the intention of reuniting his siblings. There are a few problems, though. His carefully controlled, minute-by-minute itinerary — slipped under their doors every morning on laminated cards — isn’t exactly suited to the ragtag country. And he hasn’t been entirely honest about the true intention of the journey. But the biggest problem is his issue-riddled brothers: they aren't exactly willing participants — or the best travellers.

Peter (Adrien Brody), the perpetually forlorn middle child, is still unable to cope with their father's death, even wearing the old man's glasses despite his perfect eyesight. Yet that's nothing compared to the mixed feelings he has for his wife. Or his decision to buy a poisonous snake at a market and bring it onto the train.

And Jack (Jason Schwartzman), the youngest, isn’t exactly trouble free either. A writer whose "fictional" characters and stories are based on his own experiences, when he's not spraying mace or obsessing over one of the pretty train attendants, he's obsessing over the ex-girlfriend he left behind in Paris (Natalie Portman, who's introduced in the short 'The Hotel Chevallier' preceding the main feature).

Initially Anderson (with co-writers Schwartzman and Roman Coppola) explores the brothers' relationship through witty dialogue and occasional misadventures that — as with all road (or, in this case, train) trip movies — has episodic tendencies. It's offset by the script's attention to off-the-wall detail and feels not unlike an offbeat travelogue — or 'Little Miss Sunshine' without the yellow kombi.

But suddenly the piece takes a sudden turn and what was a whimsical, if melancholy, little comedy takes on an air of gravitas more extreme than anything the writer-director has attempted before. It becomes heartfelt, even moving, without a trace of sentimentality.

And even though the filmmaker and his actors struggle to find their rhythm again once the story returns to its original tracks for the final stretch, the 20-minute detour proves that Anderson himself is moving forwards on his own quirky voyage.

Jump aboard.