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Film review

Moby drip

Even Bill Murray, as the Ahablike title character, can't save The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou, in which nothing is going on beneath the surface.

By STEVE PERSALL
Published December 23, 2004

[Touchstone Pictures] Searching the ocean for the shark that ate a fellow crew member is Team Zissou, left to right: Waris Ahluwalia, Michael Gambon, Anjelica Huston, Noah Taylor, Bud Cort, Bill Murray (as Steve Zissou), Matthew Gray Gubler, Seu Jorge, Jeff Goldblum, Cate Blanchett and Willem Dafoe.

The best thing you can say about The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou is that it isn't Spanglish. At least there's some kind of whimsical method to its nothingness. Director and co-writer Wes Anderson seems to believe he has cornered the market on whimsy, an understandable delusion after Bottle Rocket, Rushmore and The Royal Tenenbaums, but it's a fatal flaw here.

You may not see a smugger movie - not just a performance or a script, but the whole thing - in your lifetime. Each frame is so carefully designed for muted ironic effect, with a narrative going nowhere and eccentric characters repeating their quirks. The Life Aquatic (let's drop the pretentious Zissou part, please) is fine for the first reel when Anderson is throwing us off-balance. Then nothing becomes even less.

Bill Murray is an actor who can make something out of nothing (i.e. Lost in Translation), but this taxes his ham-on-wry abilities. He plays Steve Zissou, an oceanographer in Jacques Cousteau's league, whose documentaries aren't charming film festivals anymore. His latest, The Jaguar Shark (Part 1), details when that creature ate his best friend. Part 2 will be Steve's quest to find and kill the shark.

Having Murray play Captain Ahab in a strange take on Moby Dick is a neat idea that Anderson and co-writer Noah Baumbach cast aside for subplots that sink. The movie floats on odd beauties; computer-generated sea life, the devotion of a three-legged dog and David Bowie songs sung in Portuguese by a crew member (Seu Jorge). Mark Mothersbaugh's musical score and Robert Yeoman's limber camera moves through the dollhouse set design of Steve's ship are the most consistent delights.

Owen Wilson plays Ned Plimpton, who claims to be Steve's illegitimate son. Their budding relationship becomes the core of The Life Aquatic, but it never ripens, even when the reliable emotions of death arise. They're conflicted by mutual affection for Jane Winslett-Richardson (Cate Blanchett), a pregnant reporter profiling Steve. But each scene between Murray and Wilson - two funny guys if they're turned loose - falls flat because Anderson wants it played that way.

Other actors play typical Murray foils that don't pay off this time. Willem Dafoe as an insecure shipmate is primed for Murray's sarcastic pep talks that aren't in the script. Anjelica Huston is Steve's ex-wife dating his rival (Jeff Goldblum), but Murray doesn't tee off on either. Bud Cort is the uptight accountant looking after Steve's investors, a prime candidate for Murrayesque umbrage who gets off easily. I wrote earlier this year that Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story was the best Murray movie that Murray didn't make. This is one of the worst he did.

Grade: D+

Director: Wes Anderson

Cast: Bill Murray, Owen Wilson, Cate Blanchett, Anjelica Huston, Willem Dafoe, Jeff Goldblum, Michael Gambon, Bud Cort, Seu Jorge

Screenplay: Wes Anderson, Noah Baumbach

Rating: R; profanity, violence, drug abuse

Running time: 119 min.

[Last modified December 22, 2004, 08:22:08]