The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou (2004)

User Rating:

7.2/10   

Director:

Wes Anderson

Writers (WGA):

Wes Anderson (written by) &
Noah Baumbach (written by)

Release Date:

25 December 2004 (USA)

Genre:

Adventure | Comedy | Drama

Plot:

With a plan to exact revenge on a mythical shark that killed his partner, oceanographer Steve Zissou rallies a crew that includes his estranged wife, a journalist, and a man who may or may not be his son.

Plot Keywords:

Shark | Expedition | Revenge | Pirate | Oceanographer

Awards:

3 wins & 8 nominations

Cast

Bill Murray	...	Steve Zissou
Owen Wilson	...	Ned Plimpton
Cate Blanchett	...	Jane Winslett-Richardson
Anjelica Huston	...	Eleanor Zissou
Willem Dafoe	...	Klaus Daimler
Jeff Goldblum	...	Alistair Hennessey
Michael Gambon	...	Oseary Drakoulias
Noah Taylor	...	Vladimir Wolodarsky
Bud Cort	...	Bill Ubell
Seu Jorge	...	Pelé dos Santos
Robyn Cohen	...	Anne-Marie Sakowitz
Waris Ahluwalia	...	Vikram Ray
Niels Koizumi	...	Bobby Ogata
Pawel Wdowczak	...	Renzo Pietro
Matthew Gray Gubler	...	Intern #1

Also Known As:

The Life Aquatic (USA) (working title)
Untitled Wes Anderson Project (USA) (working title)

MPAA:

Rated R for language, some drug use, violence and partial nudity.

Runtime:

119 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English | Icelandic | Filipino | Portuguese | French | Tagalog | German | Italian

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

DTS | Dolby Digital | SDDS

Certification:

Iceland:12 | Hungary:14 | Norway:11 | USA:R (certificate #41059) | South Korea:12 | Malaysia:U (DVD) | Argentina:Atp | Australia:M | Canada:14A (Ontario) | Canada:G (Quebec) | Chile:TE | Finland:K-11 | France:U | Germany:12 | Ireland:15A | Netherlands:12 | Portugal:M/12 | Singapore:NC-16 | Sweden:11 | Switzerland:10 (canton of Geneva) | Switzerland:10 (canton of Vaud) | UK:15 | Brazil:14

Filming Locations:

Cinecittà Studios, Cinecittà, Rome, Lazio, Italy

Company:

Touchstone Pictures

Trivia:

As a pilot, early in the film, Ned Plimpton wears a Rolex GMT Master. This watch is popular with airline pilots for calculating time zones. By the end of the film, he has given up the GMT and plumped for a Rolex Submariner, for obvious reasons.

Goofs:

Revealing mistakes: When Steve and Ned are in the helicopter, they're supposedly far out in remote "unprotected waters". There's a two-masted sailboat visible over Steve's right shoulder in several shots. In the same sequence, the water beneath the helicopter is shallow and churning with brown sand, indicating this was shot very near a beach.

Quotes:

[first lines]
[in Italian]
Festival Director: Ladies and gentlemen, we are very pleased to welcome you to the world premiere of Part 1 of the newest film from a great favorite of ours here at Loquasto, Mr. Steve Zissou. A brief Q & A will immediately follow the screening. Thank you.

Movie Connections:

References The Ladies Man (1961)

Soundtrack:

Five Years

A Strange Film Hard To Rate On One Viewng

I find this a hard movie to rate. Maybe a second viewing would make it easier. It's a odd film: one of these low-key black humor films which is a mixture of drama and comedy. What set this apart were a few other shocking scenes of violence, something not normally in this type of movie. For a comedy, albeit a tongue-in-cheek one, that violence doesn't seem to fit, but it makes the film all the more intriguing.

At times I was totally bored with this movie and at other times fascinated. I know one thing: this is a bizarre story! That automatically means it's a good vehicle for Bill Murray, who excels at wacky characters, event he low-key ones as he sometimes plays (i.e. Lost In Translation, The Royal Tenebaums, etc.). Speaker of the latter, this movie was written and directed by Wes Anderson, the same man who did "Tenenbaums." If you saw that, you have an idea of what you might get here, although I thought Royal Tenenbaums was far funnier.

At 118 minutes, this a bit long for what it offers. I'd like to have seen it 15 minutes shorter with a tighter script. But it does offer some good photography in addition to the strange story. This movie, as they say, is not for all tastes.