THE LIFE AQUATIC …

Director: Wes Anderson (Rushmore, Bottle Rocket, Royal Tenebaums)
Starring: Bill Murray, Owen Wilson, Cate Blanchett, more

Wes Anderson, a so far highly overated talent, comes out with yet another quirkfest. I found his films The Royal Tenebaums and Rushmore to be nothing more than oddities masquerading as art. This film largely follows this same path. I do, however, see quite a bit of potential for greatness in this film. We have imagination and creativity galore: The story is about one Steve Zisou, the egocentric captain of a nautical exploration group, a la Jaque Cousteau. We have abandoned sons and troubled lovers and pirates and man-eating sharks. Unfortunately, we also have line after line, and situation after situation, falling flat. There were a handful of laugh-out-loud moments in this film, and a hundred more that were just painfully trying and failing to make the audience do so. Sadly, Bill Murray did not expand on his interesting performance in Lost in Translation. Rather he gave us virtually the same character in both films. Most annoying to me are the misplaced bits and pieces of the movie longing to be funny. A random character singing David Bowie songs in Portugese. Strange? Yes. Funny? No. In the end, though, I must admit that I complain so sharply about this film because unlike many, it truly had the potential to be great. It even had some parts that came quite close. I hate to see talent wasted, and that's just what I think Wes Anderson is doing. Hopefully someday he'll create a true success.

Standouts: A laudable attempt to create something new by the director.
Blowouts: It often failed to entertain, however.

Grade: B-