The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou (2004)
The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou (2004)
TOMATOMETER
AUDIENCE SCORE
Critic Consensus: The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou is getting soaked by many critics, who call it smug, ironic and artificial. Still, others have praised the movie's sheer uniqueness, eccentricity and whimsy.
The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou Videos & Photos
Movie Info
Internationally famous oceanographer Steve Zissou and his crew--Team Zissou--set sail on an expedition to hunt down the mysterious, elusive, possibly non-existent Jaguar Shark that killed Zissou's partner during the documentary filming of their latest adventure. A young airline co-pilot who may or may not be Zissou's son, a beautiful journalist assigned to write a profile of Zissou, and Zissou's estranged wife and co-producer, Eleanor, joins them on their voyage. They face overwhelming … More
| Rating: | R (for language, some drug use, violence and partial nudity) |
| Genre: | Drama, Action & Adventure, Comedy |
| Directed By: | Wes Anderson |
| Written By: | Wes Anderson, Noah Baumbach |
| In Theaters: | Dec 10, 2004 Wide |
| On DVD: | Apr 26, 2005 |
| Box Office: | $24.0M |
| Runtime: |
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Cast
as Steve Zissou
as Ned Plimpton
as Jane Winslett-Richar...
as Eleanor Zissou
as Klaus Daimler
as Alistair Hennessey
as Oseary Drakoulias
as Vladimir Wolodarsky
as Bill Ubell
as Pele dos Santos
as Anne-Marie Sakowitz
as Vikram Ray
as Bobby Ogata
as Renzo Pietro
as Esteban du Plantier
as Intern
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LoginCritic Reviews for The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou
All Critics (199) | Top Critics (47) | Fresh (111) | Rotten (88) | DVD (43)
Like the jaguar shark, The Life Aquatic is hard to get a hook into.
If you go with it, you'll love the film.
The Life Aquatic drifts along at a lazy pace, the occasional encounter with pirates notwithstanding.
Noah Baumbach collaborated on the arch script, whose bittersweet weirdness leaves a residue even as the narrative disintegrates.
Like the film's fake fish, The Life Aquatic is endlessly fascinating to watch but, if you look closer, there's not much there.
The director magically conjures emotional dividends in the film's invigorating last moments, which wordlessly celebrate an underrated and truly Andersonian virtue: solidarity.
Audience Reviews for The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou
An aging underwater nature documentarian assembles a team to hunt down the jaguar shark that ate his partner, including a pregnant journalist he has a crush on and a pilot who may or may not be his illegitimate son. It's "Moby Dick" by way of Jacques Cousteau, an epic comedy with a great cast, pirates, and deliberately artificial animated tropical fish; it's also the driest underwater comedy you'll ever see.
Super Reviewer
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Super Reviewer
An oceanographer on a Moby Dick revenge mission reunites with his long-lost son as he pursues the shark who killed his partner.
What is true of all Wes Anderson's films is doubly true of this one. Emotionally wrenching dynamics handled blithely and cheeky sequences of deadpan humor abound in this film, and while I think Anderson's style works in most of his films, this film gets overbearingly laid-back. All of the performances are classic Anderson fare (with the exception of Owen Wilson whose accent changes from scene to scene), and the actors are certainly not to blame for the film's failures; rather, I think Anderson's style becomes more gimmicky in this film than it does in his other work. Whereas Darjeeling Limited was a film with unmistakable substance, the substance of this film is hidden beneath layers of Anderson schtick, and what Anderson is saying - a warning against the dangers of obsession and selfishness - only comes out in fits and starts.
Overall, I think this film is only for die-hard Anderson fans who delight in his schtick and have the patience to wait for the subject to be finally revealed.
Super Reviewer
The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou Quotes
| Bill Ubell: | We fucking stole it, man. |
| Steve Zissou: | Wolodarsky, go get the keys to that fishing boat, and throw them in the water. No, wait. They might have another set. Just blow it up. |
| Steve Zissou: | I wonder if it remembers me. |
| Steve Zissou: | This is an adventure. |
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