The Critics Speak

The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou

Critic: Steph Lewis
On a scale of 0 to Awesome, I rate this: Gotta See It
Released: December 25, 2004
Director: Wes Anderson
MPAA RATING: R, for language, some drug use, violence and partial nudity.

I missed the first two minutes of this movie because, idiot that I am, I accidentially knocked my friend's latte out of her cup holder when I took off my sweatshirt. The stupid thing went rolling down about ten rows, busted open, and saturated the already-sticky theater floor. So, I went to get another one for her. Then, I accidentally went into the wrong movie theater...blah, blah, blah... and missed the first two minutes.

But, I got filled in... Steve Zissou (Bill Murray) is a marine documentary maker and, while shooting an underwater scene, this "Jaguar Shark" eats his partner (Seymour Cassel). Zissou thinks fast and shoots the thing with a homing device, then declares to a film preview crowd that his next goal is to find and kill this shark to avenge his friend's death.

At a party on his boat later, we meet Owen Wilson's character, whom Zissou introduces as, "This is probably my son, Ned." Ned joins the crew and joins the bizarro world where finances are tight (and often non-existent), the fashion is oh-so seventies, and Zissou is aging in an emotional, reckless way. Other notable characters on the boat include Jane (Cate Blanchett), a pregnant journalist; Zissou's wife (Anjelica Houston); Klaus (Willem Dafoe), a really needy guy; and the guitar-totin David-Bowie-song-singing Pelé (Seu Jorge). Jeff Goldblum also plays Zissou's anal nemesis, Alistair Hennessey.

This movie is definitely the strangest I've seen in quite some time. It's like a strange Monty Python meets National Geographic meets Twiggy video meets kid with a video camera in his backyard. It also has these creepy cult-like costumes...I would so wear those shoes. There were special effects that were bad, but good because they were bad...know what I mean? There are these crazy invented creatures (like this sweet sea horse thing) as well as these albino dolphins with frickin video cameras stuck to their heads.

The crew ends up on all kinds of weird adventures, like when they go into unprotected waters and get attacked by pirates. Bill Murray does this hilarous battle scene in his bathrobe that is a great contrast to his gun scenes from The Man Who Knew Too Little.

Wes Anderson has made a nice little cult film. My mom will hate this and say, "I don't get it" and "You would like this weird movie...weirdo" when she sees it. The emotional parts seem a bit flat...but it's somehow believable that way because their characters remind me of these sort of generic stock characters who are only allowed to be or feel to a limited extent. And, the more they experience these bizarre situations calmly and seemingly uninterested, the more the characters increase their eccentricity.

Awesome work with Bill Murray's acting. Anderson smartly captures his facial expression and acting center-stage throughout the movie. I think Murray just gets better and better the older he gets. I'm also glad that he's choosing to work with up-and-coming directors (i.e. S. Coppola, Anderson) instead of the proven ones. It's been giving him more challenging, memorable roles and helping them pull up to a more noticed stature. Cool stuff.