Wes Anderson Callback: The Life Aquatic

When stylistically unique directors come out with new films, it invariably elicits discussion about their past works, and more often than not, it gets the ‘it wasn’t as good as *name of first film here*” treatment. It’s likely to be the case with The Darjeeling Limited, although there’s always a chance people will be predisposed to like it as a way to try and cheer up Owen Wilson, cynical as that may be. That’d just go to show how well-liked he is.

It may behoove us, then, to look back at the least-acclaimed of Anderson’s works, which also happens to be his previous film - The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou. Maligned for its bizarre pacing and stop-motion marine life, it nevertheless remains a great film because of the power of Bill Murray.

Steve Zissou (Murray) is a documentary filmmaker specializing in sea life, essentially a Jacques Cousteau type, and we meet him as his stock is in sharp decline, his marriage to Anjelica Huston is crap and he seems a broken man, casually vowing revenge on the preposterous “jaguar shark” that killed his best friend. Struggling for funding, it comes in the form of Ned (Wilson), who has a couple hundred grand in savings and may just be Steve’s illegitimate son. Steve tries to turn it into a bonding experience, but he lets his ego and self-destructive nature get in the way at nearly every turn.

Yes, the fakey fish are distracting and cumbersome, and yes, I’m still not quite sure what to make of Cate Blanchett’s role as the pregnant reporter trying to do a cover story on Steve and disrupts the father-son bonding. But it’s Murray’s sardonic nature with the devil-may-care strangeness of Steve Zissou that continues to make this movie compelling. As with all Anderson movies, you’re just never sure of what’s going to happen next.

Case in point, Bill Murray breaks out of restraints, grabs a gun and goes to town on blowing away pirates while still in his bathrobe. That alone makes the movie worth every penny. You just never expect anything that viscerally satisfying when watching an artsy film, and it’s glorious, and when they all become gun-toting action heroes at the end to rescue the bond company stooge (Bud Cort), it’s a direction you never would have expected after the first hour of the film. Willem Dafoe merits particular notice in helping take the standard ‘jealousy of the new guy’ plot point and making it weird and amusing.

That’s what Wes Anderson does. He makes weirdly amusing movies, no more, no less. Whether that’s artistic genius or just a niche we never knew was there is up for debate.