Review: Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou
Honestly, I was a complete skeptic with this movie up until 1 hour and 52 minutes into it; this movie is 118 mins long. you have this all-star ensemble cast (Bill Murray, Willem Dafoe, Angelica Houston, Owen Wilson, Cate Blanchett, Jeff Goldblum) and a movie that you have to dissect just to identify something resembling a plot.
Most scenes are seemingly random with little to tie them together,
except for Zissou's (Murray) quest to hunt down the Jaguar Shark that
killed his best friend. Owen Wilson makes his appearance as Zissou's
long-lost son, Willem Dafoe is this wacky German guy, and there's this
dude that just appears in some scenes singing David Bowie songs in
Portuguese with a guitar randomly throughout the movie — it's just all
a jumble.
At least, it was until i got to the end when it finally all
came together. The point finally revealed itself.
This movie was about a man who was going through his mid-life crisis. Everything was falling apart on him; his marriage, his career as an oceanographer/documentarian, the camaraderie of his crew, et cetera. The strangest things happen on this journey of his, the hunt for the shark, to just be vindicated. It's as if he needs to prove to himself that he's still worthwhile, that he isn't a failure like the public at large thinks him to be.
In the last 20 minutes of the movie, I went from being completely confused and total loathing for the film to uninhibited love. All it took was just one moment, one moment of seeing Zissou completely emotionally vulnerable to turn my whole opinion of the movie around. I want to OWN this flick and it's soundtrack. I still don't get that random black guy hanging off boats and stuff singing David Bowie songs in Portuguese, but he made me want to buy the soundtrack.
