Search for a film:

March 29, 2006

The Life Aquatic

A Pop Bellyflop

By Ben

With Bottle Rocket and Rushmore, Wes Anderson arrived on the filmmaking scene with quite a splash. In fact, I remember a certain writer for this site coming to class once a week telling me he had seen Rushmore again (looks at Andrew). His next feature, The Royal Tenenbaums was entertaining yet ultimately unfulfilling. A film spread thin by its overabundance of characters. Unfortunately, his latest film The Life Aquatic is another disappointment, a bellyflop good for a few laughs at the expense of the one doing the flopping.

With the disappointment that was The Royal Tenenbaums I originally figured it was myself that had changed and not Anderson. After all, I first saw Rushmore in eighth grade and The Royal Tenenbaums senior year of high school, those being formative years of my youth it was only natural to assume I had outgrown Anderson's quirky aesthetic and his dry, irony soaked sense of humor.

Further investigation proved this to be untrue, I've seen Rushmore countless times since I first saw it and it remains a hilarious and often poignant coming of age story. Subsequent viewings of The Royal Tenenbaums have elicited some chuckles but mostly the feeling that Anderson is just borrowing from every director he's ever enjoyed, himself included.

Because I had already formulated this opinion of him prior to seeing The Life Aquatic it took me awhile to get around to seeing the film. When I finally did pop it into my DVD player I couldn't watch more than the first twenty minutes or so. After the novelty of seeing my Italian film professor interviewing Bill Murray wore off it was just more typical Anderson.

Eventually I did get around to watching the entire film and I was sorely disappointed. Willem Defoe and Cate Blanchett give great performances that make the film worth watching while Bill Murray, I hate to say, gives a wholly unlikable performance that bordered on a parody of himself. Overall, the cast of characters is entertaining and the revenge driven shark hunt that Steve Zissou (Murray) sets out on is silly enough to be somewhat entertaining. But, I've never had an issue with Anderson's ability to create great characters and enjoyable stories. The problem is that he's a pop artist forty years too late.

Throughout the film, it appeared that some effort was made to say something about father and son relationships but it was lost amidst the muck of pop culture and pseudo-intellectual references. David Bowie dominates the soundtrack and Proust, Werner Herzog, and Klaus Kinski (amongst others) are all name dropped. A major issue that I have with Anderson is that he creates such rich worlds full of colorful characters yet he doesn't allow you to stay within the world that he's created. Instead, he's constantly referencing the real world and drawing your attention to the fact that you're looking at a movie. His films are too self conscious for their own good and suffer under the weight of the real world that many of his viewers are trying to get a break from yet Anderson is so insistent on referencing over and over again.

Because of the emotional baggage that comes with already established works of art, many film professors will repeatedly warn their students about using popular music in films. It appears that Anderson's professors failed to mention this to him or he just failed to take note. Yes, his films produce great soundtracks but, most glaringly in The Life Aquatic, they also prove to be highly distracting. This was most evident to me during the finale when they confront the shark to the tune of "Staralfur" by Sigur Ros. While the scene was supposed to be the climax of the film, all I could think of was the time I saw Sigur Ros at Radio City Music Hall, an experience much more inspired and memorable than Mr. Anderson's latest dud turned out to be.

Back to Top