The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou Blu-ray Review

Reviewed by Dr. Svet Atanasov, May 20, 2014



"Why are they laughing?"

Steve Zissou (Bill Murray, Lost in Translation ) is a maverick oceanographer who has lost his best friend Esteban (Seymour Cassel,) during the shooting of his latest documentary. Now Zissou and his crew -- Team Zissou -- are on a mission to find the giant Jaguar Shark that ate Esteban and kill it.At a film festival, Zissou is approached by Ned Plimpton (Owen Wilson, Wedding Crashers ), a handsome pilot for a small Kentucky-based airline. Ned tells Zissou that he might be his long lost father because his seriously ill mother told him so before committing suicide. Intrigued by the revelation, Zissou invites Ned to join his crew even though he does not know anything about oceanography.On board of Zissou's ship, the Belafonte, most of the time Ned sticks out like a sore thumb. But he frequently looks like the most rational person as well  though not as far as Zissou's right-hand man Klaus (Willem Dafoe, The Hunter ), Zissou's ex-wife Eleanor (Anjelica Huston, The Crossing Guard ), or Zissou's accountant Bill (Bud Cort, Harold and Maude ) are concerned.Soon after he joins Zissou's crew, Ned meets Jane Winslett-Richardson (Cate Blanchette, Blue Jasmine ), a pregnant British reporter who wants to profile Zissou for a popular magazine. Zissou quickly becomes attracted to Jane, but Ned falls in love with her. Around the same time Zissou discovers that Eleanor might be romantically involved with his arch-rival Alistair Hennessey (Jeff Goldblum, The Lost World: Jurassic Park ), who was once married to her.The mission is seriously jeopardized when pirates board the Belafonte.Wes Anderson's fourth filmis virtually impossible to describe with simple words. Most of the time it feels like a very colorful dream which does not have a beginning, middle, or end -- things just happen in it and some of them even make sense for as long as the film lasts.The balance between the funny and the sad, however, is very awkward, even for an Anderson film. Indeed, there are too many different subplots that unnecessarily expand the story in all sorts of different directions. Some focus on minor triumphs, others focus on minor failures. There is always a good dose of silliness infused in these subplots, but only a few actually work well enough to justify the expansion.Murray's character is supposed to be the heart and soul of the film, but after the initial rounds of odd lines the 'distractions' around him become far more interesting. For example, there is a Portuguese crew member (Seu Jorge) doing some really great covers of David Bowie songs, beautiful sea life (created by stop-motion animator Henry Selick), and even an overly energetic three-legged dog that manages to seriously upset Goldblum's character.The film is complimented by a truly wonderful soundtrack created by composer and Devo member Mark Mothersbaugh. The music has a certain minimalistic/retro feel, but its harmonic structure is very unusual. It works perfectly for the fantasy world in which Anderson's characters exist.