Review of The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou (2004) by Matthew O — 23 Jun 2015

It takes real talent to put both heart wrenching and hilarious moments together in the same movie and not break the flow its created, and Wes Anderson has that talent. The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou is the second film by Wes I've seen, and already he's become one of my favorite directors.

Along with being able to balance tone he's also understood the unwritten commandment of making a movie like this, never acknowledge anything is out of the ordinary. Wes wisely never takes us out of his world to mention the strangeness of albino dolphins that operate cameras, a man who sings David Bowie songs in Portuguese, or a woman who reads multiple volume French literature to her child that has yet to be born.

Instead he chooses to further plunge us into the realm of funny yet dark fairy tales that he is known for. This makes his characters more than just people on a screen, and causes us to care and grow with them through their adventures.

As previously mentioned,these adventures have lots of hilarious jokes, ranging from deadpan deliveries to the problems involving below average safety experts. These elements contrast with the tragic ones, involving violence and loss, but instead of being off putting help make the story told even more relatable and vast in scope.

By the end of it you really feel like you've been on a voyage with these characters, and have suffered their hardships and celebrated their triumphs with them. In the end The Life Aquatic is a movie that hits all the right notes, and is a great example of a film that exists in a world all on its own.

Also there's a random scene that serves to describe Steve Zissou's boat in detail that comes out of nowhere, I love moments in movies like that.