Publication Date: 02-11-2026

The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou (2004) review

Dir. Wes Anderson

By: Steve Pulaski

Rating: ★★½

Remembering Bud Cort

1977 – 2026

The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou is a film of impeccable beauty. The set designs alone should’ve earned the film a Best Art Direction nominee. But the film those beautiful sets inhabit is inferior and clunky, yet nothing atypical from the creative mind of Wes Anderson. After impressing me so much with The Royal Tenenbaums, it would’ve given me great pleasure to report that The Life Aquatic was much of the same; compelling cast, great character actors, and exuberant characters with heart and backstory.

It upsets me to report that the film is very underwhelming when compared to The Royal Tenenbaums, yet has sustainable perks of its own. We’ll get to those. We are greeted with our title character, Steve Zissou, played by Bill Murray, who has been in attendance for the last two Anderson pictures. He is a famed oceanographer documentarian, who has somewhat lost his popularity over the years, but after his friend Esteban is eaten by, what Steve dubs, a “Jaguar Shark,” he plans to make a second part to his documentary, showing the crew venturing out to the deepest waters to find him.

Zissou’s team is full of quirks. One of the main members is a cleaned up guy named Ned (Owen Wilson) who may or may not be Steve’s son, but goes along anyway seeking company after his mother’s tragic death. Steve’s ex-wife (Anjelica Huston), secondhand man, Klaus (Willem Dafoe), and a snobby reporter (Blanchett) also tag along for the ride in his boat to roam treacherous waters, searching for the shark.

The film is elevated by its versatile sense of colorful imagination. Colorful indeed. Anderson’s trademark use of colors is invigorating here. Everything is so meticulously detailed and beautifully colored, that the look of the film is one thing keeping the viewer interested at all times. Bill Murray’s performance as well, handling the dry humor and subtle wit concept effortlessly well.

But why are we on this journey, per say? Anderson has created a movie with enough life and color to shape two films, yet has neglected the most important part of virtually every film; the sympathetic part. It’s no doubt that the man himself has the aesthetics of a film down to a tune. He can truly make a film great in terms of cinematography, directing, and details. It’s when he is faced with creating characters that sustain films he struggles. They aren’t characters we feel for, and we are only carried through this journey because of vague interest, and not total involvement. The film is overlong, occasionally very dull, and it doesn’t seem it knows that. It has deadpan humor, which is nuanced to the point of straining the mind and soul, and everything moves at a staggering, sluggish pace, which apparently, is how it’s supposed to be.

Wes Anderson, when valuing characters over minor qualities in film, is a talented man. Wes Anderson, when focusing on minor aspects of a film over everything else, is sort of a tedious director. The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou will most likely please his fans, but at the end, the lack of an emotional impact (which the film sort of hungers for throughout its runtime) is lost because of how much time was wasted on developing cutesy scenery. I admire Anderson for sticking to his guns, but after a while, we question whether or not he is simply trying to make good movies or competing for the title of “most eclectic.”

REVIEWS OF OTHER WES ANDERSON FILMS:
My review of Bottle Rocket (1996)
My review of Rushmore (1998)
My review of The Grand Budapest Hotel
My review of Isle of Dogs
My review of Asteroid City

Starring: Bill Murray, Owen Wilson, Cate Blanchett, Anjelica Huston, Willem Dafoe, Jeff Goldblum, Michael Gambon, and Bud Cort. Directed by: Wes Anderson.