Are You With Us?
The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou
By Shalimar Sahota
April 7, 2010
BoxOfficeProphets.com
Steve Zissou (Murray) is an oceanographer who documents his findings on film, along with his crew, Team Zissou (half of whom are young interns). During the making of his last documentary, his partner and close friend Esteban (Cassell) is eaten by something Zissou describes as a "Jaguar Shark." For his next voyage, Zissou intends to track down the shark and kill it. Before setting out he is joined by a young pilot, Ned (Wilson), who believes he might be Zissou's son, and pregnant jounalist Jane (Blanchett), assigned to write a profile on Zissou.
Zissou has had success before in the past, but feels it slipping away from him. It appears that the filming of his expedition to kill the Jaguar shark just might bring back that same feeling again. Without ruining it all, Zissou seems to get most of what he wants in the end, yet doesn't feel any different. "Similar to Bill Murray's career," I imaginarily hear you cry? Well, since Lost in Translation ,we've been seeing different shades of melancholy Murray. Brilliant performances, but it's as if we're watching the same character in different scenarios.
Compared to Wilson's previous Anderson collaborations, where he's been credited as a writer, his character Ned doesn't actually have any knockout lines. Anderson doesn't waste any time introducing him as Zissou's possible son, a moment that is played quick and straight. Coincidentally, after The Life Aquatic, Murray shot Broken Flowers, which also had him discovering that he may have a son.
Blanchett as Jane stands as a reminder that Zissou just isn't the same person anymore.
Dafoe is the highlight of the film, as the overly sensitive Klaus, with his ridiculous German accent. Goldblum, as Zissou's somewhat friendly nemesis Alistair, does well in a limited yet essential role; his meeting with a three-legged dog is genius.
If you've already gotten this far into Wes Anderson territory, then you've probably already realised that the word quirky is synonymous with him. Just to be different, it's things like a three-legged dog, the matching uniforms, the totally unreal sea life (a crayon pony fish), Zissou being the only one that gets covered with leeches, or a lavish premiere that looks to have cost more to put together than the documentary being premiered (well ,why not?). These things don't really need to be there; maybe it's just quirky for quirkiness' sake, but as expected, it enhances the film. With so many little touches, the anally observant will be rewarded. Anderson's one-shot tour of Zissou's ship, the Belafonte, is a must-see-twice scene.
Anderson carries over the stuck-in-the-past retro fashion of The Royal Tenenbaums, with the majority of the cast decked out in pastel blue shirts and red woolly hats. He went an extra step further, designing fictional blue Adidas trainers, prompting numerous calls to the company from fans trying to obtain a pair. The unusual underwater sea creatures were crafted by stop-motion expert Henry Selick, unceremoniously known for directing The Nightmare Before Christmas. His work here might be where Anderson got the bug for attempting the stop-motion animated Fantastic Mr. Fox.
Critics appeared to be split down the middle. Maybe this puts me in the minority, but this was funnier than The Royal Tenenbaums. It sends quite a humorous jolt seeing Zissou point a gun at the pregnant Jane, yet during the most hilarious scene we later find out that's he's an excellent shot with one, right after he warns pirates who board his ship to get off.
The Life Aquatic was Anderson most expensive film, with a production budget of $50 million. A good chunk of this is likely to have gone towards constructing the life size cross section and sets that make up Zissou's ship. Having had box office success with The Royal Tenenbaums, Touchstone Pictures was probably expecting similar results, so they followed the same pattern as Anderson's previous film, opening in December and starting out on a limited release. On just two screens it took a reasonable $113,000 during its opening weekend. The film went wide during the Christmas weekend, and managed to enter the top ten at #9 with a take of $4.5 million. The film ended its run with $24 million. An additional $10.7 million overseas brought its worldwide total to $34.7 million.
Maybe it was quirky-overload, or people were just put off by the drab kind of look of it. Even the title itself seems to do a good job of deterring people, suggesting a biopic of someone we've never heard of. But lest we forget the old adage to never judge a book by the size of his penis. The Life Aquatic is a slow boiler, all right, but the message it illustrates is how sometimes, it's the getting there, rather than the destination itself, that turns out to be most satisfying.
Directed by – Wes Anderson
Written by – Wes Anderson and Noah Baumbach
Starring – Bill Murray (Steve Zissou), Owen Wilson (Ned Plimpton), Cate Blanchett (Jane-Winslett Richardson), Anjelica Huston (Eleanor Zissou), Willem Dafoe (Klaus Daimler), Jeff Goldblum (Alistair Hennessey), Michael Gambon (Oseary Drakoulias), Bid Court (Bill Ubel), Waris Ahluwalia (Vikram Ray), Seu Jorge (Pelé dos Santos), Seymour Cassell (Esteban du Plantier)
Length – 114 minutes
Cert – 15 / R