THE LIFE AQUATIC WITH STEVE ZISSOU by Wes Anderson
Steve Zissou (Bill Murray) is an ageing oceanographer whose fame is fading and his personal life decaying. As he puts it himself ‘I know i haven’t been at my best this past decade’. When his best friend and partner is killed by a ‘Jaguar Shark’ with Steve being the only eyewitness, it all goes down. His critics doubt the ‘Jaguar Shark’ exists, they claim his documentaries are looking ‘fake’, his wife Eleanor (Anjelica Huston) leaves him – and Zissou vows to find and kill the ‘Jaguar Shark’ who ate his friend. Joining the ‘Zissou team’ are Ned Plimpton (Owen Wilson), who may or may not be Steve’s son, and pregnant journalist Jane (Cate Blanchett – gorgeous), insurance guy Bill (Bud Cort), and five unpaid interns. Members of the Zissou team include quirky German Klaus Daimler (Willem Dafoe), topless script-girl Anne-Marie (Robyn Cohen) and guitar-playing Pelé dos Santos (Seu Jorge).
Is The Life Aquatic a movie about getting old and feeling useless? A movie about a son finding his father? A movie about missed opportunities and trying to find salvation? A romance? A comedy with (funny) action-scenes? A revenge movie? A Bill Murray-movie? All of that, and maybe more – it’s ‘A Life Aquatic’.
P.S.: And it has the cutest stop-motion creatures of this decade in it – including a rainbow-striped sea horse, backflip frogs, sugar crabs, a yellow lizard, and a huge ‘Jaguar Shark’