Grade: C- | Genre: Comedy Summary: While this is a far cry from being an unwatchable film, it is still very lackluster and can be tedious at times to sit through. The Godfather of quirky, Wes Anderson, has come for a visit bringing his latest sea adventure The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou. Anderson always balances on such a fine line. There is no question that he is one of the most innovative directors in Hollywood, but his level of unconventionality sometimes gets him in deep water. After all without a striking story and absorbing characters, you just have this huge ball of quirk bounding down a hill, mowing over everything in its path. The Life Aquatic is that ball, and though he may fascinate us with the bountiful tricks up his sleeve, it simply stuns us for long enough to get squashed.

In the spirit of good sportsmanship, I feel that I must state for the record that I loathed Rushmore yet I really liked The Royal Tennanbaums. If you loved them both, Wes may have a lock on your funny bone thus you could think this film is a complete laugh riot. Now that we have that bit of housekeeping out of the way, let me introduce you to Steve Zissou (Murray). Steve is a washed up oceanographer, turned documentarian, making films that would be at home on the Discovery channel. The problem is no one is tuning in to his work anymore. In his latest mission, he lost one of his age-old shipmates to a mythical, endangered tiger shark. Steve has vowed revenge for his beloved comrade and will stop at nothing short of filleting that shark up medium rare. The only problem is, with his documentaries being ignored; his financial backers have dried up to none. Ned (Wilson) suddenly appears out of thin air on a 30-year delay. Ned just happens to be Steve's long lost son neither of them knew about. Steve coerces Ned into joining his "pack of strays" as they chart their faithful destined meeting with the tiger shark.

The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou Starring: Bill Murray, Owen Wilson, Cate Blanchett, Anjelica Huston, Willem Dafoe and Jeff Goldblum Director: Wes Anderson Instead you may want to check out... The Royal Tennanbaums Punch Drunk Love

While dust balls are slowly forming on our nose, Anderson just heaps layer after layer of quirkiness on us. In a more compelling film, Tennanbaums for instance, this can add to our fascination of the film and its characters. Here it is merely fluff to remind us that we are clutching onto a two-dollar inflatable lifesaver while chaotic waves crash about us. There is no substance to our substance. Anderson continues to explore his father-son relationships with Steve and Ned. This discovery of a father and son finding one another after a lifetime without is starting to become a bit tiresome after already exploring this terrain in his previous film Tennanbaums. We need new material to reel us in, not Tennanbaums at Sea.

The film's lone positives come as a result of Anderson's attention to detail, and his incredible eccentric style. The fashion and look of the times seem to beckon a late-70's to early-80's fashion coupled with some of today's technology. His quirky eye, though a bit overextended here, is second to none. I mean a hot air balloon tethered to the ship while out at sea. Who else would have ever come up with that baffling combination? Also, his filming style is very interesting in that he slices the boat down the middle so we can watch the characters as the traverse the different rooms of this elaborate ship in skeleton mode. He certainly brought along all the stylistic elements that have awarded him success in the past.

While this is a far cry from being an unwatchable film, it is still very lackluster and can be tedious at times to sit through. I suggest that he spend a little longer working on the script next go around, and not focus his plot line around another lost father-son relationship. Anderson is still a great filmmaker, but even the greats take missteps every now and again. They just have further to fall when they miss our expectations.