Talk about a mo
vie that defies analogy and categorization; in plot and look and feel, it’s not really like anything else out there. It’s a feast, visually and musically; wonderful undersea footage (and stop-action animation), richly saturated colors, and a Bowie-based score with throw-ins from the Zombies, Bach, and Iggy Pop (of course, the Bowie cuts are all sung in Portuguese, so there!). The oversaturated colors and writer/director Wes Anderson’s unconventional cuts (and a couple of truly amazing theater-style scenes on a cut-away version of the ship) give it a delightful but somewhat artificial feel, the feel I get from a well-done comic book; enjoyable but very clearly not ‘real’ (which could of course spark the Film School 101 argument about what cinema is supposed to be, anyway…).Yet it’s also neither zany, nor naïve, nor even melancholy; gently surreal, maybe,
like a mild buzz from the joints Murray’s character smokes throughout. Murray has nearly perfected droll-and-despairing; one reason the movie works so well is that its pacing matches Murray’s perfectly. Anjelica Huston is, well, Anjelica Huston; Owen Wilson plays southern-sincere so syrupy that he’s almost Leslie Howard; Cate Blanchett does okay with an interesting but oddly unfinished character; Willem Dafoe gets to turn his trademark intensity on its ear; and for heaven’s sake it’s got Jeff Goldblum and Bud Cort in the same movie! What more could you ask for? It’s truly odd, but not odd in a dark way at all… if you’ll grant Anderson his conceits and just enjoy the ride, it’s a heckuva ride indeed. A-
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