Steve Zissou’s Shark Revenge Sails Through on Bill Murray’s Boat, Flounders on Land

Bill Murray plays Steve Zissou, a man whose documentaries have grown smaller and less sure in the years since his partner Esteban du Plantier was killed by a 10-meter-long spotted creature Zissou calls the “jaguar shark.” That loss sets the whole film’s engine, and it never lets up.

Trailer, via HD Retro Trailers.

The Shark and the Ship

The Belafonte is the film’s real character. It’s an aging vessel, and its crew is a strange one, pulled together by Zissou’s own legend. Ned Plimpton, played by Owen Wilson, thinks Zissou is his father, which gives the film its engine of need. Jane Winslett-Richardson, played by Cate Blanchett, is a journalist pregnant by a married man, and her presence turns a simple mission into something uneasy and alive. The film is at its best when it’s moving through water, between the boat and the ocean, rather than on land.

The Cruise and the Crew

The story does not move quickly. It repeats itself, and time dissolves into a single run of days at sea, with Zissou’s past catching up to him in the form of his estranged wife Eleanor, played by Anjelica Huston, and his old friend Alistair Hennessey, played by Jeff Goldblum. The film is full of people who know Zissou, and each one brings out something different in him, until the very end, which changes the whole course of the film.

Seu Jorge plays Pelé dos Santos, a Brazilian guitarist who sings David Bowie songs in Portuguese, and his music carries a good deal of the film’s weight. Willem Dafoe plays Klaus Daimler, the first mate, and he’s the only one who sees Zissou clearly, even when Zissou can’t see himself.

The film was made in and around Rome, Naples, Ponza, and the Italian Riviera, and the scenery is large and thick, like a painting of a ship at sea. It was a box office failure when it first came out, but it has since found a following, and people now speak of it with more kindness than they once did.

What Works, What Doesn’t

The film works best when it’s focused on the sea, on Zissou’s boat, and on the people who sail with him. It falls apart when it wanders from that space, onto land, where the pacing grows dull and the story repeats itself. The music, scored by a man named Oseary Drakoulias, played by Michael Gambon, is a real part of the film’s character.

The flaws are easy to find. The film’s shape is loose, and it repeats itself without good reason. It’s a strange, funny, sad film, and it is never quite what it promises to be. But there’s something in it that keeps you watching, something in the old boat and its strange crew, that holds the whole thing together.

1. The sea scenes, carried by Murray’s performance, are where the film finds its footing.
2. The story on land drags, repeating itself without variety.
3. The music, scored by Oseary Drakoulias, adds real weight to the film’s mood.
4. The love triangle between Ned, Zissou, and Jane gives the film a pulse that holds it together.

The Verdict

The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou is a strange, funny, sad film, one that is at its best in the water and at its worst on the land. Murray gives a performance that carries the whole thing, and the old boat and its strange crew give the film something real to hold onto. It’s not a perfect film, and it isn’t one that holds together from start to finish, but it’s a film with real feeling in it, and that feeling is worth sitting through the weaker parts to get to.

Bill Murray · Cate Blanchett · film review · movie · Owen Wilson