Delayed Reaction: The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou

The Pitch: Wes Anderson makes a Wes Anderson movie with a Wes Anderson cast.

The arc of Wes Anderson's career makes a lot of sense. He starts with Bottle Rocket. It's well liked but such a small movie that's it's pretty forgotten. That film got him enough attention to get a studio to throw some money at him. He follows that up with what are arguably his two most critically applauded films: Rushmore and The Royal Tenenbaums. He doesn't quite have the studio's trust while making them, so there's some restraint to his style (like when an author is much more tightly edited early in her career than later). Those films end up being more broadly appealing. After those successes, Anderson has a lot more freedom and gets a little too ambitious. His next couple films, The Life Aquatic and The Darjeeling Limited, are generally considered his weakest films. He decides to veer into a different kind of film entirely - animation, in his case - FantasticMr. Fox, which does fine, but really solidifies the idea that he should keep making what he knows how to. By then, people are pretty decided on him. They either love what Anderson does or really don't. Since then, he's played entirely to his audience, making Moonrise Kingdom and The Grand Budapest Hotel. Or, as I always like to describe it, Wes Anderson has spent his career getting better at making a Wes Anderson movie.

I'm not much of a fan of Wes Anderson movies. They are confidently and competently made. I don't question for a second if Anderson knows what he's doing. I even understand how some people could like the movies. They just aren't my style. They strike me as 90 minute winks at the camera. The performances are too mannered. It's like he starts by presenting a person that can't exist then does a very good job of giving that person humanity. So, it's like the characters are authentically fake. It's an impressive skill, but not one I value much.

OK, I should actually get to The Life Aquatic. It's fine. The humor doesn't quite work            for me. I think the set for Steve Zissou's boat is impressively structured. I like the core cast with Bill Murray, Owen Wilson, and Cate Blanchett. I did fall asleep watching this and had to rewatch a good 30 minute chunk. You can interpret that however you'd like. This is definitely one of Wes Anderson's weaker films, and given that I'm already not predisposed to like his films, I really didn't care for it. Nothing about it profoundly angered me though, so there's that.

Verdict (?): Weakly Don't Recommend