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The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou
Directed by Wes Anderson
Starring: Bill Murray, Cate Blanchett, Owen Wilson, Anjelica Huston, Willem Dafoe, Jeff Goldblum, Michael Gambon
Touchstone Pictures
2005, 118 mins
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| Bill Murray is such a star now that the term ' Bill Murray film' has as much resonance as 'John Wayne film' or 'Cary Grant film'
once had. His last outing, Lost In Translation, was a triumph for the quirky, laconic type that he plays, someone whose inner
workings and crises have an everyman appeal in their understated comicality. His exploits as grumpy weatherman Phil Connors have by now
added the phrase 'Groundhog Day' to the language.
So what, then, do we make of Captain Steve Zissou, famous oceanographer, documentary filmmaker and charismatic personality?
Yes, he is very much a Bill Murray character - he is Bill Murray, we like to think when watching the film, as though he, the actor, is compensating for the charming
frame-breaking devices and magic realism built into its structure by actually being Steve Zissou rather than merely playing the part. |
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| Like Bob Harris in Lost In Translation, Zissou wears his state of middleage like a hair shirt.
His beard is grey, his expression is world-weary, and we know he has seen better days. His latest documentary is a sad affair, as it features the death of his friend and cameraman Esteban at the teeth of the mysterious jaguar shark.
With finance now difficult to arrange, Zissou sets out to make Part 2 of the documentary, taking to sea with his trusty crew - all resplendent in their uniforms of powder blue
leisure suits, red bobble hats with Glock pistols strapped to their thighs. |
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On this voyage there are two newcomers, who become the lynchpins of the narrative as they are drawn into the dysfunctional web of Team Zissou.
Airline pilot Ned Plimpton (Owen Wilson) believes he may be Zissou's son from a casual encounter, and the two form a tentative surrogacy bond.
Such is Zissou's controlling nature that he suggests Ned change his name - not only his surname (to Zissou) but also his christian name, to 'Kingsley', which is the name
Zissou himself would have chosen. Feisty - and pregnant - reporter Jane Winslett-Richardson (Cate Blanchett) quickly incurs Zissou's pique when she takes a tough questioning line in her interview with him;
but it doesn't stop Zissou shortly making a pass at her, which is summarily rejected. Then when Jane and Ned become enamoured, Zissou,
naturally, is jealous.
As in The Royal Tenenbaums and Rushmore, director Wes Anderson delights in exploring these familial tensions and neuroses, all circulating around an
unreliable patriarch figure. The resulting entanglements are comedic, but also ring true. But
there is so much more to The Life Aquatic than just this search for redemption through restoring family ties. It has a fine
ensemble cast, including Angelica Huston as Zissou's long-suffering wife, Jeff Goldblum as a fellow emperor of the seas, Michael Gambon as an eccentric producer and Willem Dafoe doing
comedy well as a crew member filled with resentment by his displacement by Ned. The film also boasts some strikingly original and
captivating postmodernistic touches, which make everything come alive on many levels.
It is constantly posing the question, what is real and what is made up? The sea creatures, from the tiny pony fish to the
jaguar shark itself, are obviously artificial, being brightly coloured models, rendered through stop-motion animation. This makes us
wonder if Zissou and his team, in their unreal blue and red garb are not, too, part of a cartoon rather than a 'real life' movie. 'Real
movie' reality is further undermined by Zissou's ship, the Belafonte, which is displayed in its entirety as a cross-sectional set, with the camera panning through walls and decks as
the crew move from place to place. And the fact that Team Zissou are themselves filmmakers, shooting their own activities for a documentary, sets up another very interesting level of tensions.
Such is the art of its artifice that at times The Life Aquatic appears to invert, like those drawings that can either be read as a loving cup or two faces in profile -
are we watching a film about a documentary being made, or a documentary about a film being made?
There are probably no half-measures with a film likeThe Life Aquatic - you either get it and love it, or you don't and it leaves you cold.
But if you err towards the positive then it is a joy, refreshing in its left-field originality, and with Bill Murray as good as ever, if not slightly better.
© Roger Keen 2005 |
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