mfunk75's Full Review: Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou
Here's an exercise for you: describe a colour to a person who has been blind since birth. Or explain the joy of music to someone who has always been deaf. Or try and relate the pleasure of a fine-tasting meal to someone without a tongue. It's hard, isn't it? I can relate to these exercises whenever a naysayer asks me just why I am a Wes Anderson fan.
I can agree with them, when they say that Anderson's films aren't comedies. Though they never seem to understand when I point out that they're still funny as hell. And I nod with approval whenever they bemoan the fact that there are just too many laconic characters. Though my love for these characters is getting harder and harder to convey. And I'm the first one to point out that the plots of Anderson's films are meandering, and unfocused, and devoid of much narrative thrust. Though I could really care less about plot, when he's captured the poetic essence of life.
If you are not a Wes Anderson fan, you're probably shaking your head in disbelief right about now. If you are a Wes Anderson fan, you'll have had these conversations too. And never the twain shall meet.
My best tactic, usually, is to say this: in every Wes Anderson film, there is at least one moment that moves me. Not in a flippant, "Gee, guys, wasn't that an emotional movie?" sense. But in an "I think my heart just broke" sense. The moment where Anthony finally relents, and agrees to go on Dignan's Big Caper in "Bottle Rocket" moves me. The moment when Royal Tenenbaum, in the film named after his family, realizes that he's not just a shyster but also a father to his kids, moves me. And in "Rushmore", there's a moment that moves me about every five minutes (Max introducing Mr. Blume to his father comes immediately to mind).
In "The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou" there are fewer such moments -- and they are further in between -- than in those previous films. Which is why it's probably my fourth favourite Wes Anderson film. Though, coming from me, that's like saying Alpha Centauri is the fourth brightest star system in the entire night sky. It still illuminates magnificently, and there aren't many better options for guiding your way home.
The first moving moment involves a chopper crash. We get the pilot's, and his passenger's, perspective as they dive headfirst into the ocean deep after a malfunction. The moment is played in silence, and then a series of quick cuts flash before their eyes when they hit the water. It is harrowing stuff that never crosses the line of manipulation. The second such moment comes in the film's denouement, and, as Steve himself says at one point, "I don't want to give away the ending." But I can say that, to me at least, Anderson has done his work setting this moment up. And the payoff is achieved. For a hardcore WesManiac like myself, that's all I can really ask.
As Steve, Bill Murray gets to show why, yet again, he and Anderson are such a formidable actor/director pairing. Murray's inherent charm and likeability are here, but hidden beneath a character that would be barely tolerable if you met him in real life, and downright Satanic if he weren't played by Bill Murray. Steve knows that he is a "showboat… a little bit of a prick," but he also knows that it's too late for a man in his fifties to change. He almost reminds you of that racist grandfather of yours, the one who's too old to know better, when he casually throws around homophobic terms like "faggot" and "bull dyke". You don't hate your grandfather for his ignorance, and you'll be willing to cut Steve the same slack.
Because, as the film's relentless thematic overbearance never forgets to tell you, Steve has had a tough life. True, he once had a rabid fanclub dedicated to his adventure documentaries. And, as the film opens, he is in Italy to present his latest feature to a rapt audience. But his salad days have long since passed. And, despite the presence of Team Zissou, his loyal -- but usually bored-looking -- crew, or his wife Eleanor (Anjelica Huston), he's basically alone in the world. He's a man with passion and foresight and a prickly personality. Never a recipe for popularity, that combination. Add in a touch of grief (his best friend and collaborator didn't come home from their last voyage, a fact that provides the impetus for this fish tale), and Steve Zissou is a man who's hard to like.
Into this mix of regret is thrown a long-lost-son subplot. Initially Steve takes kindly to the young man. But eventually his true colours come out: "I hate fathers and I never wanted to be one," he says, and you could tell just this all along. Owen Wilson plays Ned Plimpton, the son in question. Wilson's surfer charm is covered up by the character's airplane pilot rigidity, and his Texan drawl is mishmashed awkwardly with a bad Kentucky accent. Still, Murray and Wilson make a fine pairing. You can see why each would be drawn to the other, but also how they'll soon get on each other's nerves.
Cate Blanchett follows Wilson down the path to BadAccentville, as she spend the film talking in a voice more suited to Mary Poppins than a serious reporter. Still, she's a solid third vertex in the film's oddball love triangle, and on her own she's a strong-willed earth mother, with deft comic flair.
The rest of the cast is underused. "We're a pack of strays," says Steve about his "United Colours of Benetton" crew, and that part they get right. But any time you can gather an ensemble this eclectic together (Willem Dafoe, Jeff Goldblum, Michael Gambon, Noah Taylor, Bud Cort and Seymour Cassel are the names you might know) and give them this little to do, it's a shame.
Be that as it may, this is Murray's show all the way. For a man who should be in the waning stages of his career (popular comedians have a history of fading fast) Murray is just hitting his stride. Ironic, then, that his character here is a wilting flower. He once enjoyed the spoils of celebrity, but these days Steve Zissou has to hustle for every bit of funding he can find. He's also aware that his artistic abilities have left him; the long-worn tricks of the past don't work anymore. Though he does stumble onto something that only old age and experience can grant: wisdom. "We'll give them the reality this time," he says, after a nasty fall down the stairs is caught on film (not surprisingly, since Steve demands that everything be caught on film). Murray gets every element of the character just right -- his pain, his regret, and even his moments of growth -- and manages to look dashing in a Speedo while doing it.
Anderson's style, visually and musically, is always a delightful treat. Here is no exception. The film's colour scheme is rigid and static; everything is draped in gold, bronze, wine, and powder blue. But that kind of inflexibility, while making each new set instantly recognizable and familiar, also provides some crafty comedy; the sight of a mangy crewman wearing a tuxedo and a red toque is sly and silly. We also get Anderson's trademark tableaux style, which populates the background of every scene with handmade equipment, typed letters, and other little touches that keep the world looking real (well, not real; but real in context, just as you might believe the Heaven and Hell depicted in a Hieronymus Bosch triptych).
Most exciting is the image of the Belafonte, Team Zissou's trusty boat, laid out as a life-sized cross section that's got to be longer than a city block. Each nook and cranny of the vessel is rendered in loving detail (and comes complete with an onboard Swedish masseuse!). A scene where Murray and Wilson chase each other from room to room is a treat. Though, in wishing that there were more such moments, one realizes that this giant set is criminally underused. Nearly making up for that fact, and giving a bit of a thrill on his own, is the participation of Henry Selick, the claymation samurai behind "The Nightmare Before Christmas" and "James and the Giant Peach". He chips in with some brightly coloured and almost surreally comical fishwork for the underwater scenes.
The aspect of "The Life Aquatic" that's sure to get the most attention is its utilization of David Bowie songs. Sometimes they are played straight ('Life on Mars' shows up early on, perfectly complementing a more contemplative Zissou moment, as he walks across a boat from stern to stem in slow motion, while Christmas lights illuminate the night sky and the Italian backgrounds). But usually they are sung in Portuguese, by actor Seu Jorge ("City of God"). It's another in a series of grand stream-of-consciousness ideas by Anderson, that doesn't make sense on any logical plane. But makes perfect sense in the film's abstract context. Plus: it reminds you of just how great those old David Bowie songs really were.
In scripting this movie, Owen Wilson's busy acting schedule made him unavailable to be Wes' co-writer, as he had done for each previous movie. Enter Noah Baumbach, the writer/director of several indie-comedies that I haven't seen and thus don't feel equipped to comment on. But I have seen what he can do with Anderson, and, though this script lacks the loopy Zen-charm that was surely Wilson's stock-in-trade, it makes up for it with some serious weighty talk.
Though it does lean heavily on Anderson's past. Fans of the "Tenenbaums" will hear a feint echo of "this is my adopted daughter Margot", when Murray introduces Wilson with "this is probably my son Ned". And the whole father-figure/son-figure-both-in-love-with-a-daffy-British-woman plot borrows heavily from "Rushmore's" backbone (with Murray reprising his role). That being said, go ahead and name me one quality filmmaker who doesn't tread over old ground once in a while. It's how we recognize their films' common themes.
In the end, "The Life Aquatic" reminds me of that quote from Jacques Cousteau, which sets Max off along his perilous journey in "Rushmore". "When one person, for whatever reason, has a chance to lead an exceptional life," wrote the great oceanographer, "he has no right to keep it to himself." Which might as well be Steve's raison d'etre as well. He may not be a great man, and his may not be an exception life, but it's one worth living. "I wonder if it remembers me," ask Steve about the Jaguar-Shark that killed his best friend, proving that even this man with this enormous ego needs a little recognition, to make the journey worthwhile. "The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou" is worthwhile. Wes Anderson naysayers may still say their nay after viewing. But Wes Anderson fans, those of us who wait patiently while the man crafts yet another heartbreaking film, won't have any problems riding these bumpy waves.
Internationally famous oceanographer Steve Zissou (Bill Murray) and his crew--Team Zissou--set sail on an expedition to hunt down the mysterious, elus...More at Buy.com Marketplaces
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