Last night Marcia’s sister Catherine came over and brought along a movie. It was “The Life Aquatic” starring Bill Murray and Owen Wilson. I had seen previews of it, a trailer in the theater, and heard and read a few reviews. It did not look like something that would interest me. It looked dumb. It was trashed by critics. Glad I watched it though.
This is another movie that is to be partially chalked up to critics being over zealous. The other part is that you may just not like this type of movie. If you enjoyed “The Royal Tenenbaums”, then do yourself a favor and rent this. It is from the same co-writer and director, Wes Anderson.
The following plot summary is from the International Movie Database. This one was written by Sujit R. Varma.
Internationally famous oceanographer Steve Zissou (Murray) and his crew - Team Zissou - set sail on an expedition to hunt down the mysterious, elusive, possibly non-existent Jaguar Shark that killed Zissou’s partner during the documentary filming of their latest adventure. They are joined on their voyage by a young airline co-pilot Ned Plimpton (Wilson) who may or may not be Zissou’s son, beautiful journalist Jane Winslett-Richardson (Cate Blanchett) assigned to write a profile of Zissou, and Zissou’s estranged wife and co-producer, Eleanor (Anjelica Houston). They face overwhelming complications including pirates, kidnapping, and bankruptcy.
The cast also includes Willem Dafoe as Klaus Daimler (he is actually quite good and does a good job with a German accent), Jeff Goldblum as rival oceanographer Alistair Hennessey, and Michael Gambon as Zissou’s financial manager Oseary Drakoulias.
There is also Seu Jorge who plays Pelé dos Santos, and also contributes to the soundtrack. He plays acoustic versions of David Bowie tunes and sings them in Portuguese. It adds to the very eclectic soundtrack, which included original Bowie recordings, pieces composed by J. S. Bach, and also Iceland emo-pop-rock sensations Sigur Rós.
The movie as a whole is like TRT’s, at time serious, at other times comedy. The soundtrack adds really well to poignant moments, sometimes with music that seems opposite of what is happening, giving it a strange appeal. Overall, I liked it and was glad I was talked into watching it.
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