The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou

1/5/2005

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

The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou is a classic Bill Murray put-on film spoofing Jacques Cousteau and his documentary film making. Irreverence is nothing new to Murray, but here he is spoofing a world icon. I am a Bill Murray fan, and he is brilliant in this role from the cheesy documentary films to the pirates boarding his ship, the Belafonte. This is a very subtle film. One has to have seen the Jacques Cousteau TV documentaries in order to appreciate this film.

The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou starts as Steve Zissou shows a film where his good friend is eaten by an heretofore unknown fish, the Jaguar Shark. Steve Zissou embarks on a mission to hunt down and kill the shark. First, he must raise the money to fund his expedition. The funding comes from an unexpected source, his son, Ned. There are more tangential stories involving his wife's first lover and rescuing an accountant placed with the expedition by pirates. And of course Cody, a three-legged dog. Through out the film is Seu Jorge playing his guitar and singing David Bowie songs translated into Portuguese. The film starts slowly, but grows on you.

I give it 3 out of 5 Hats and Speedos:

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