Starring: Bill Murray, Owen Wilson, Angelica Huston, Cate Blanchett
Director: Wes Anderson
The film: For a movie with such a stellar cast, The Life Aquatic keeps a low-key and underground film atmosphere throughout. This is partially due to understated lifelike acting, a comedy script that's more oddball than side-splittingly funny, a lot of documentary-like cinema-tography and the inclusion of unashamedly low-budget animation.
A number of roles were specifically written for the actors, so it's just as well that Anderson snared them.
Focal character Steve Zissou happily sees Bill Murray (right) remove himself from his passive Lost in Translation role. But not entirely. Although Zissou, underwater adventurer and documentary maker - modelled on 1970s TV star the late Jacques Cousteau - is something of a live-in-the-moment loose cannon, both of Murray's recent characters face a series of life crises.
The plot premise hinges on Team Zissou taking to the ocean to track down the little-known jaguar shark that gorged on Zissou's partner, while making the last documentary. Along the way, interruptions come, in the form of Zissou's wife, Eleanor (Angelica Huston) leaving him, his unknown son Ned (Owen Wilson) announcing his existence, piracy and kidnapping on the high waters, to name a few. Meanwhile, a journalist (Cate Blanchett) is noting all goings-on down, while experiencing her own dilemma as a single mum-to-be.