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Poster (c) Touchstone Pictures
Steve Zissou (Bill Murray) is a Jacques Cousteau-ish oceanographer whose crew member, in the process of filming their latest documentary, is eaten by a mysterious ocean animal, dubbed the Jaguar Shark. Team Zissou, which includes Klaus Daimler (Willem Dafoe), his wife Eleanor (Anjelica Huston), and a man who might be his son (Owen Wilson). As they go out on the open seas, Zissou's rival Hennessey (Jeff Goldblum) tries to catch Zissou in his unlawful ways (as it's illegal to kill that shark).
There's a certain style that Anderson has in his movies. It's like this surreal world where crazy things can happen, yet everything is still in today's timeframe, similar to Tenenbaums and its lack of a location (375th St. YMCA?). Anything can happen. The sets are wonderful-instead of tricking the audience into believing it's a real ship, we see the camera pan throughout, much like a stage set. Any animation is claymation (colorful claymation, I might add). The whole movie is wonderfully visual. And, as is the norm for every quirky movie of recent years, there has to be at least one moments that's extremely beautiful. In Tenenbaums, I'd say it's the final scene, as the camera pans to everyone coming to terms with everything that has happened. In Garden State, it's the scene with "The Only Living Boy in New York" playing. And in The Life Aquatic, I'd say that it's probably the end, when they're all in the submarine. The anticipation of two hours, and great music playing in the background, with stunning visuals-how can you not like it?
Although The Life Aquatic isn't as character driven as, say, Tenenbaums, that's not to say that the characters aren't quirky or anything like that. There's Pele (Seu Jorge), who just sings David Bowie songs in Portuguese (and barely anything else). Dafoe's Klaus is definitely the greatest character in the movie. You don't expect Dafoe to be able to pull off comedy at all, but he's the funniest character of all. You wouldn't expect him to pull off a German(ish) accent well at all, either. But it works. And there's the rest of the crew of the ship, who aren't really recognizable. But this is definitely Murray's movie. He's in almost every scene, he has some of the best lines, the weirdest character, everything. Murray's a great comedian, and his deadpan performance (somewhat similar to Raleigh St. Clair in Tenenbaums) adds to the movie a lot.
I admire Anderson (and his new co-writer, Noah Baumbach) for being completely off the wall here, and stepping into action-movie territory ("We call them pirates out here"), completely randomly. But that's where I have my one complaint. Maybe it's just that Anderson and Baumbach were getting used to each other or something, but the story meanders somewhat. Throughout about an hour in the middle of the movie, the Jaguar Shark is not mentioned at all. It seems like the movie just has a completely different mission in the middle, and it's like a slap in the face when the plot comes back to it towards the end. But The Life Aquatic is very funny, nonetheless. The humor's not as quirky as Tenenbaums or Rushmore, so it's more accessible, and there's some truly funny stuff in here. Everything mixed together becomes one of the best movies of 2004. One that no one should pass by.
Rated R for language, some drug use, violence and partial nudity.
Review Date: December 29, 2004