Wes Anderson has become somewhat of a folkloric figure for modern film-lovers and devotees of contemporary cinema, with his distinctive style (which is often lovingly parodied) making him one of the most universally-embraced filmmakers working today. Personally, I find him quite an endearing filmmaker, albeit one with the visual aesthetic that can sometimes be a bit too artificial. Regardless, I absolutely adore all of his films, but my tastes do differ slightly (I still maintain that his greatest achievement is The Darjeeling Limited, a film that is still relatively well-liked, but not considered one of his major works). However, perhaps his most polarizing film (by “polarizing”, I mean that it is not as widely loved as his more conventionally-acclaimed films) is The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, which also happens to be one of my favorite of his films for a variety of reasons. Like The Darjeeling Limited, The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou is a beautifully-made, hilarious but also heartfelt film that embraces its characters and allows Anderson and co-writer Noah Baumbach to do some of their very best character-driven work, resulting in a film that is not exactly critically-maligned, but rather far too underappreciated, and thus deserves a second chance from the multitudes of detractors who compare it unfairly to The Royal Tenenbaums and Moonrise Kingdom.

The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou is about the titular character, Steve Zissou, an oceanographer who is heavily based on Jacques-Yves Cousteau. His crew consists of a variety of quirky and eccentric characters such as his good friend and confidante Esteban (Seymour Cassel), aggressive first-mate Klaus Daimler (Willem Dafoe), his wife Eleanor (Anjelica Huston) and a few others that make up the crew of colorful misfits. When Esteban is brutally killed by what Zissou considers to be a jaguar shark, his crew plans to hunt down the culprit, which they also hope will revive Zissou’s legendary documentary series, which has steadily been losing its brilliance, resulting in Zissou possibly becoming a faded hero to many. To make matters worse, Ned Plimpton (Owen Wilson), a pilot from Kentucky, seeks out Zissou, who he believes to be his father. Ned joins the crew of the Belafonte (Zissou’s ship) and they set off on a series of journeys throughout the high-seas.

In all honesty, The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou is not anything that we have not seen from Anderson before – it is a quirky comedy with memorable characters, a large ensemble cast playing eccentric characters, all tied together by the hilarious but touching story, buttressed by the distinctive archetypal artificial visual aesthetic that Anderson has come to be known for imbuing his films with. Yet, The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou is also unique in its approach to the story, and there are many differences between this film and some of Anderson’s other work. I am still not entirely sure if the reason for the relatively muted response to The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou is because it is too similar to what we have come to expect from Anderson, or because it is secretly very different, operating as something that seems to be predictable, but sneakily subverts expectations and becomes something so much more than what the audience is lead to believe. It seems like The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou is a film that operates more successfully as a film for those who have never seen a film by Anderson, as audiences more accustomed with the director’s work may feel like they have been through this before, and by the time the third-act comes around, where this film takes some surprising and unique turns, they may have already grown a bit too cold towards the film. The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou is not a bad film, nor a mediocre one, by any stretch of the imagination: it is one of Anderson’s very best films, and one that is tragically underappreciated.

If we are talking about folkloric figures, there isn’t any modern performer who is as universally-loved as Bill Murray. Tales of his droll but lovably deadpan attitude, his feats of moral strength in his films and various iconic encounters with adoring fans have set Murray up as one of the most endearing modern entertainers. However, let us not forget that he is also quite simply one of our greatest comedic minds, with the past few decades giving us a wealth of films and television shows that showcase the utter brilliance Murray possesses. There are very few filmmakers that are able to capture Murray’s unspeakable but tangible essence of talent, his je ne sais quoi, as Wes Anderson – and it is not surprising that Murray is Anderson’s most regular collaborator, taking part in every Wes Anderson film, with the exception of his debut, Bottle Rocket. The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou is also the first (and to date, only) Anderson where Murray is the central performer, and for all of this film’s faults, no one can deny that Murray is perfect as the hopelessly optimistic oceanographer who is slowly losing his adventurous spirit and becoming disillusioned with the world that made him a worldwide icon. The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou finds Murray playing one of his most complex characters, akin to that of Bob Harris in Lost in Translation the previous year. He is able to balance material both hilariously comedic and heartbreakingly dramatic in this film, and the penultimate scene of this film is utterly extraordinary, simply because of Murray’s raw ability to commit to this character and create something truly special through his performance. The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou is undeniably one of Murray’s finest hours, and the extent to which he develops this character through his own relentless dedication to making him far more complex than what he initially appears to be, as well as being very different from the wise-cracking, sarcastic characters Murray has come to be known for, is truly astonishing. If anything, The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou is worth watching entirely for Murray’s performance.

However, like all of Anderson’s films, The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou has a strong ensemble of supporting players, and I believe it to have some of the most fascinating characters that Anderson has ever created. The cast is practically brimming with talent, ranging from Willem Dafoe, who plays the First Mate who idolizes Zissou and wants to be respected in the same way that his captain is. Arguably, it isn’t the best use of Dafoe in terms of the fact that his performance lacks much of a meaningful arc, and Klaus is relatively a background character, used only for a few jokes and to keep the tone of the eccentric collection of characters going. Owen Wilson gets the biggest supporting role, and while his performance as the Kentuckian pilot who goes in search of the person who is supposedly his real father is not quite as good as his performance in Bottle Rocket or The Darjeeling Limited, it is still a fantastic performance and allows Wilson to show considerable depth. Cate Blanchett has ascended to one of our most absolutely flawless acting goddesses, being almost celestial in her status, but The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou gives her a far more loose, more simple character in the pregnant journalist sent to profile Steve for a cover story that everyone will hope will serve to revive the fledgling documentary series and bring glory to the rapidly-fading captain and his crew. Furthermore, Anjelica Huston is as stunningly regal and dignified as ever, playing the sardonic Eleanor with an abundance of dismissive cynicism and just a dash of youthful hope.

There are some fantastic supporting performances here that were absolutely astonishing in how complex they were, despite the limited screentime. I have said it several times before, but I would not protest if every movie had Jeff Goldblum in its cast, and as Alistair Hennesey, Steve’s colleague, nemesis and the ex-husband of Eleanor, who (by his own words) is “part gay”. It is a small but undeniably hilarious performance by the only other actor working today that can give Bill Murray a run for his money as the most magnetic performer working today. Michael Gambon, one of the most unheralded British actors of his generation, is given a wonderful role as Steve’s flamboyant and outlandish producer, and while the role is somewhat limited (much of the cast consists of extended cameo performances), Gambon absolutely sells the character. The most surprising performance in this film came from Bud Cort, who is an actor who holds an extraordinarily special place in my heart because of his brilliant, definitive performance in arguably my favorite comedy film of all time, Harold and Maude. In The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, Cort plays Bill Ubell, the “bond company stooge”, sent to supervise the adventure. The character is quite a scene-stealer, and it makes me wonder why Cort didn’t become a bigger name after Harold and Maude, because he certainly is quite a presence, even in such a small role.

Like many of his postmodern filmmaker contemporaries, Anderson is known for his iconoclastic and distinctive use of music, and some of his choices are unconventional, but not ill-chosen. The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou has some of the director’s most bold musical choices, resulting in quite a memorable experience. Brazilian musician Seu Jorge has a major role in the film as one of the crew members but is most distinctive in the several musical interludes, where he plays covers of popular David Bowie songs on acoustic guitar, adding a certain level of melancholy and calm energy to the film. Moreover, electronic music pioneer Mark Mothersbaugh, of Devo fame, composed the score, which is frenetic and frantic and adds to the quirky attitude present throughout the film. Also, there is an Iggy Pop song in this film, and if you truly want to win me over, put an Iggy Pop song in your film (and Anderson didn’t choose just any Iggy Pop song, he chose “Search and Destroy”, which is as snarling and energetic as the film in which it occurs). Every song in this film is exceptionally well-chosen, and it contributes massively to the film as a whole.

It would be redundant to speak about the visuals of The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, because Wes Anderson is defined almost entirely by the aesthetic of his films. Along with his regular collaborator Robert Yeoman (who has lensed every one of Anderson’s films, with the exception of Fantastic Mr. Fox), they have forged quite a distinctive style for Anderson’s films, and while it may be overly-saccharine in its artificiality sometimes (yet still undeniably gorgeous), it has certainly positioned Anderson as one of the great cinematic artificialists of his generations. The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou is set mostly at sea, but even through such a paltry setting, it manages to still be visually stunning. There are various interludes set on land, and the meticulous attention to detail is palpable. It can be quite overwhelming to experience the panoply of bold visual choices, but it works incredibly well here. Anderson is not only a great storyteller, the way he conveys those stories through the beauty of his production design, so obviously theatrical and artificial, is truly extraordinary, and while detractors may relentlessly mock him for this perceived reliance on the cultivated style that has defined his career, but they will never note how utterly original such an approach to filmmaking is for a modern director, being very much in the same school as Michael Powell, the greatest artificialist of all time.

The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou is a great film, and while it may not hit the extraordinary highs that some of Anderson’s other films have, it is a wonderful experience nonetheless. With a strong story that packs a proverbial emotional punch, populated by great performances from its charming and talented cast and featuring some of Wes Anderson’s most delightful character work, it is a lovely addition to the filmography of a director who is almost universally adored by audiences, critics and his contemporaries. The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou is a prime example of how Anderson is able to construct a story to be sweet and endearing on one hand, and scathing and satirical on the other. It is a great film, and perhaps Anderson’s most unfairly underrated films. It may not be his very best, but it certainly is one of his most experimental and fascinating, and for all of its faults, The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou is purely original and has a genuine spirit of adventure, one that is very rarely captured in cinema nowadays.