Holiday Movie Preview 2004

The Life Aquatic

It's as if Rushmore and The Royal Tenenbaums weren't quite quirky enough for director Wes Anderson, so he had to get Bill Murray into a powder-blue scuba suit as an underwater adventurer (think Jacques Cousteau) and literally throw the whole thing off the deep end. Working with new writing partner Noah Baumbach, who created Kicking and Screaming and Mr. Jealousy, Anderson has crafted what might be called a sweet family drama in the bizarro universe this movie inhabits.

Steve Zissou (Murray), a charismatic leader whose crew would follow him to any depths, suddenly goes from sea lover to fisherman after a shark gobbles up one of his colleagues. Meeting a young man (Owen Wilson) who might be his son, Zissou asks him to join the team, and they set out for revenge. This is an oddball comedy that hardly needs to draw its humor from anywhere beyond its zany premise and gifted stars, but Anderson has a deck full of supporting characters to add to the hilarity, including Anjelica Huston, Jeff Goldblum, Cate Blanchett and Willem Dafoe.

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