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Dom Robinson reviews

The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou

Distributed by
Touchstone Home Video

Cover


The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou is the title of a series of short films about an internationally-renowned oceanographer, played by continual master of the deadpan Bill Murray, who travels about in his ship, The Belafonte, with a large crew that also incorporates a cameraman, sound engineer and cutting room with which to process these documentaries.

The first of these that we see introduce us to the crew and the fact that his long-time colleague Esteban (Seymour Cassel) has been eaten by what Zissou refers to later as a "jaguar shark". After this, he's determined to track it down and kill it, but that's far easier said than done.

The film relies heavily on the interplay of its cast. Bill Murray is perfect as Zissou, while next on the list is Owen Wilson as Ned Plimpton, a pilot with Air Kentucky who turns out to be Steve's son. As it happens, Ned's mother died a month prior to the events in this movie and Steve hadn't seen her in 30 years with no contact from her after they last met. However, in real life the pair are only 18 years apart in age, while in the movie, Steve's 52 and Ned is 29, so how does 23 years difference equate to 30 years apart? Doesn't make sense at all. Oh well, that doesn't detract from the enjoyment.

Cate Blanchett plays a snotty English journalist who's along for the ride to write an article about Zissou's return to the shark, but it's a more intensive piece than he's bargained for. She's not only pregnant by her married editor (who's off-camera throughout), but also the object of desire for both Zissou and Ned.

Financial assistance on the expedition is supplied by Michael Gambon's character, the bizarrely-named Oseary Drakoulias, while there's better support from Willem Dafoe as one of the crew members, Klaus Daimler, and there's a couple of could-have-phoned-their-performances-in from Anjelica Houston (Zissou's wife, Eleanor) and Jeff Goldblum as her ex-husband and supplier of smarm, Alastair Hennessey.


There are many clever touches throughout the film, such as the way several David Bowie songs are 'covered' in Portugeuse by Brazillian singer Seu Jorge, playing crew member Pele. Also, there's the way the lights keep going out, below deck, and then coming back on when the breaker switch is replaced; and when they try to make their short documentaries, Zissou is just as concerned about getting the shot just right as he is about ensuring the crew's safety, possibly more so on the former. Similarly, there's a couple of nice CGI touches such as a 'crayon pony fish' (a multicoloured seahorse) and some mating sugar crabs.

The set is a stroke of genius, with the camera panning around as we see a cut-through version of Zissou's ship, and we go from room to room. It comes across less a film and more like a play, acted out on a massive set. According to one of the featurettes, it's 40ft high by 150ft in length.

There are a few obvious jump cuts between scenes that are meant to pan from one to another, be they horizontal ones in the Belafonte ship or from the hot air balloon back down to the ship. That said, there's a seemingly obvious continuity error about 44 mins in as Ned takes a smoke of his pipe, according to which hand it should be in. Perhaps Wes Anderson is doing this on purpose?

The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou is a fascinating and engaging comedy/drama, often with more emphasis on the drama and the comedy appearing only as light undertones but it all comes together brilliantly. I get the feeling this is one of those films that's appreciated most by those who'll enjoy the spectacle as it has a great visual nature to it, while occasional movie watchers will let their brains bypass that and, thus, will just think there's really not a lot going on.

If I could make any cast changes, it wouldn't be Goldblum as he's like that in a lot of things, but I don't see what makes Anjelica Houston a big star. Similarly, Cate Blanchett just drifts through anything she's ever starred in, despite having a main role here; and Owen Wilson's the same. Where's his star quality?



Team Zissou search the deep ocean for the
Jaguar Shark that ate their fellow crew member.


The picture is presented in an anamorphic 2.35:1 widescreen ratio and there's fantastic framing with the anamorphic Panavision lens, all of which will get completely destroyed when shown on TV in the future if cropped to 16:9 or 4:3. The image looks superb almost all the time except for some bright scenes that feature movement, causing a slight jerky effect that's offputting.

Soundwise, there's little to complain about. However, there was a DTS soundtrack made for this movie, but Buena Vista chose not to share it with us, despite there being plenty of room on the first disc for it.

There aren't a massive amount of extras on disc 1, which is why we have a second disc for those, and according to the BBFC's site, the extras run for a total of 2 hours and 35 minutes. All film footage within is in 2.35:1 letterbox as it's often part of a 4:3 featurette. On disc 1, in addition to a feature-length Audio commentary, the first featurette, Starz on the Set (14½ mins), mixes clips from the movie with interview soundbites from key cast and crew members, plus a look at the outstanding set. However, it does rush everything by too quickly which is a shame. There are also 9 Deleted Scenes (4½ mins), most of which are extended ones and could all fit back easily into the film with no detriment, but I can see how cutting them out can make some scenes a little tighter.

Disc 2 has a page with several undersea 'creatures' pointing to supplementary offerings, starting with a Stills Gallery containing 170 pictures, individually chaptered, and so does the shorter Design section with 15 pieces of concept art. Next up, the obviously-titled, Seu Jorge Performs David Bowie has 10 songs from the genius played here by the Brazillian singer, all tastefully done on acoustic guitar and translated into Portuguese.

I was hoping for This is an Adventure (51½ mins) to be more the kind of featurette I wanted after seeing the brief one on disc 1. It's a documentary made in Italy during the 2003 film shoot, but is really just a series of B-roll footage of scenes being filmed and the director being observed doing so, with no commentary over the top or pieces to camera. It's like being a fly on the wall during filming. A nice addition, but some direction during it would've been better.

On to the shorter pieces:

There are 30 chapters to the film which is most welcome, subtitles in English (with a hard-of-hearing option), French and Dutch - all for the movie only. The menu features subtle animation and techno-like music from the soundtrack as Team Zissou head down to investigate the phantom signal underwater that they hope is of the jaguar shark which killed Esteban.


FILM CONTENT
PICTURE QUALITY
SOUND QUALITY
EXTRAS



OVERALL

Review copyright © Dominic Robinson, 2005.

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