cup-o-robots

The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou opened at Lincoln Square last Friday in Manhattan, and my friend Saki and I decided to give it a whirl - being pretty big Wes Anderson fans and all, haha. So from the get-go I’ll probably talk about this film from a very fan POV, so bear with me.

The Life Aquatic is a film that you have to let yourself be sucked into. You have to prepare yourself to let go and just absorb the world that the movie presents to you. In general, Wes Anderson’s films have to be watched in this way in order to really get the full enjoyment from his cinematic style. While not a perfect film, it had a lot enjoyment packed into it, from some good performances (a few were even a surprise to me) to some really cool set pieces of Zissou’s ship the Belafonte. Like I’ve said before, the director’s films are almost always a love or hate affair. What is it about Anderson’s films that do this?

For me, I believe it’s the way the humor and storytelling is being presented. The films are not your typical Hollywood comedy or even a generic indie comedy. Anderson has totally made a genre for himself. While every now and then, some may compare his work to contemporary filmmakers like David O. Russell, Alexander Payne, Charlie Kaufman, and so on, Anderson has become his own amateur of his dry, satirical comedy that happens to have an incredible amount of depth and atmosphere to it. What I mean by this is that his films are funny and enjoyable not because of the dialogue, the pacing or having A-list actors, but because of the details and the character that is put into everything - the actors, the sets, the color, even the typography in the signs, props, whatever (a big thing to notice for graphic/communication designers, haha ;)). The funniest parts of The Life Aquatic are the little moments that happen. Things like William Dafoe’s suspicious looks that he gives after each scene, Bill Murray lighting a smoke with a hot-air balloon’s burner, Jeff Goldblum’s character wearing a “I’m a Pepper” T-shirt (remember those 80s Dr. Pepper commericials!?!). It’s these little details that just really makes the movie blossom and become something “more than a film.” I don’t know if it’s mainly the artist/designer in me, but when you notice something like those details and you realize how much effort on the filmmakers are putting out to do that, you just appreciate it and really get more in-tuned with the film.

There’s no doubt about it that Anderson and his cast (including alumni of his like Murray, Anjelica Huston, Seymour Cassel, and good friend Owen Wilson) have a strong sense of qurkiness, but it’s being able to channel that and incorporate it into a really fully developed character that makes it stand-out. In a movie with good casting (though I would have to say The Royal Tenebaums had a more well-rounded and overall better cast), my favorite character in the film is Klaus Daimler, played by Willem Dafoe. Dafoe has always been a great, entertaining actor. With films like Platoon, The Last Temptation of Chris, Shadow of the Vampire, and Boondock Saints, he has become a very versatile actor and has a sort of unusualness and oddity to his roles, like Johnny Depp, that make his performances very entertaining. Besides the crap costume, he was actually a pretty good villain as the Green Goblin in Spider-Man (however, Alfred Molina - again maybe it’s the better costume or just the timing of which enemy to fight in which movie - made a better villain overall). In The Life Aquatic, Dafoe plays Murray’s main crew member (after the death of his former partner Esteban du Plantier played by Seymour Cassel) who admires Steve Zissou and becomes suspicious when a man claiming to be Zissou’s son appears, played by Owen Wilson. While Dafoe’s character seems underused (and I would say the same about Jeff Goldblum’s character Alistair Hennessey), he does pretty much steal every scene he’s in. I would hope that Wes Anderson asks Dafoe and Goldblum to appear in his future films and join Anderson’s own “company of actors.” Now being in a third consecutive picture of Anderson’s, I think you can say that Murray and Anderson have become a classic team-up. Not sure if it’s up there yet with Scorsese and DeNiro, John Woo and Chow Yun-Fat, or Zhang Yimou and his leading ladies, but they definitely have a great match-up going on. This is probably far-fetched, but I compare this team-up to Luc Besson and Jean Reno. While those two have been working together for a long time, even during the Besson’s earliest films, there was a time when the two had three consecutive feature films similar to the Anderson-Murray team. Like Murray in Rushmore, Reno had a supporting main character in The Big Blue, then a smaller but memorable role in the following film - Murray with Tenebaums, Reno with Nikita - and finally both Murray and Reno take the spotlight in the third, Murray in Aquatic, and Reno in Leon (a.k.a. The Professional). Just a random thought I had.

(Small, minor spoilers ahead, just to warn ya ;))

Anyways going back to The Life Aquatic, I would rank it third out of his four features, with The Royal Tenebaums and Rushmore in front of it, and Bottle Rocket as last. I can see it being the most commercial release of his films, with a lot more press and advertising going into this film than any of his others; and it will probably turn in a similar, if not more, profit than Tenebaums, especially when Aquatic goes nationwide during Christmas. Reviews have been pretty split so far with its limited release at the moment. It seems that those who respect his other films will definitely enjoy this one, while the reviewers who may moderately like his films would probably rate this lower than his last two projects or give a negative review overall. With a film like Aquatic it really goes with how a person’s sense of humor is. The film is dry, with a lot of wit and spoofs every now and then (acknowledging Jacques Cousteau, John Woo films, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, Moby Dick, even Sealab if you want to stretch it - to name a few). So those who do not like to have an open mind, or embrace the real eclectic mix of humors and complex characters, may feel unsatisfied, even lost in its story. Speaking of plot, it’s pretty straightforward starting out as basically a revenge, Moby Dick style quest. However, there can be a few too many subplots that pretty much become oblivious or as random artifacts to the audience (Owen Wilson as the lost son, Cate Blanchett’s character - a reporter/publicist - and her pregnancy drama, love triangle with Murray, Goldblum and Houston, another triangle with Murray, Wilson, and Blanchett, accusations of the Zissou adventures’ authenticity, etc.). I would say it’s pretty obvious that Anderson likes to keeps things like this open-ended, but at the same time, it can be a chore trying to absorb that in addition to all the more action, adventure parts of the film (ran-sacking a rival explorer’s sea base, Filipino pirate attacks, and so on), which is something new to Anderson’s work. A lot of this can be solved with pacing in a film, and while it gets pretty lost and slows down in the beginning, it really picks up in the last half of the film. The last half worked so well for me that I almost forgot about the unmotivated beginning and thoroughly enjoyed the film until the end credits. I just wish the rest of the film were as good.

Going back to the details, I just want to say that the film has a bunch of little film geek stuff that film students and buffs alike will appreciation. Things like Team Zissou and there on-board film editing room on the Belafonte - complete with flatbed, recording studio, and a viewing room to watch dailies - is fun. Then there are nods with its funny and over-the-top (as in awesomely goofy) action scenes which I can only describe as John Woo meets old 60s/70s spy-cop shows. Plus, you got a great cast of character actors (you know, like actors you may not know by name but would say “Oh! That guy!”) like Bud Cort, Noah Taylor and Michael Gambon. Overall, there is just a lot stuff to talk about The Life Aquatic, and that’s how I would describe it - STUFF, but in a very good way. One artifact in particular are the cool little creature special effects from Henry Selick (director of The Nightmare Before Christmas and James and the Giant Peach). Selick is currently in pre-production of an animated adaptation of Neil Gaiman’s children’s novel Caroline, and is also said to work again with Anderson on his next project, an animated film of Roald Dahl’s The Fantastic Mr. Fox. Oh! Okay, so one more thought that just came to mind about the humor - which seems to me to be the biggest issue that people have with Anderson’s films - they just don’t find them funny. The humor that goes with the film is very non-Hollywood, or more importantly anti-sitcom (with some exceptions like Arrested Development, Curb Your Enthusiasm, maybe even Seinfeld) which may explain why Anderson’s films never really hit it with a general audience.

So anyways, while not his best film (Tenebaums is still the film that I would watch at least once a month.. if that doesn’t sound excessive, haha), it’s a good movie to gather some friends and watch during your holiday. So check it out and have a merry Chrismukkah! (Sorry, OC reference - what the?! :P)

The ultimate-super-final grade (muahahaha!): 8 out of 10