accessAtlanta

Grade: B-

Verdict: Sometimes sinks, but mostly goes along swimmingly.

By ELEANOR RINGEL GILLESPIE
Cox News Service

I tend to dislike any director routinely described as "idiosyncratic" -- I fully expected "The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou" to be dead in the water.

But it's not. Neither as smug as "Rushmore" nor as disjointed as the likable "The Royal Tenenbaums," "The Life Aquatic" is an often clever film with some genuine laughs and a playful streak.

Bill Murray stars in this fish story about a past-his-prime Jacques Cousteau-ish figure named Steve Zissou, whose partner was eaten by a "jaguar" shark on their last documentary jaunt under the sea, "The Life Aquatic, Part 1." Turning Captain Ahab-ish, Zissou vows to hunt down the nasty man-eater in "The Life Aquatic, Part 2."

So it's back in the water for the members of Team Zissou, who wear identical red caps and Speedos. A suitably regal Angelica Huston plays Steve's wife, Eleanor, inevitably dubbed "the brains of the operation." Willem Dafoe is the ship's engineer, a loyal and emotional German who loves short shorts. Seu Jorge provides entertainment aboard, covering David Bowie songs with a bossa nova beat (a joke that soon wears thin). And, of course, there are the usual nameless interns who do grunt work for a good grade.

New on board are a pregnant reporter, Jane (Cate Blanchett), who's doing a cover story on Zissou, and a airplane pilot from Kentucky, Ned (Owen Wilson), who may or may not be Zissou's long-lost son from a long-ago one-night-stand.

Anderson has a sharp eye for oddly amusing details. Zissou's boat is the Belafonte (Cousteau's was the Calypso). His smarmy arch-rival, a smarmy Jeff Goldblum, wears an "I'm a Pepper" T-shirt. Team Zissou sits around watching their old documentaries as if they were old home movies (which, in a sense, they are).

The fanciful animated sea creatures by Henry Selick ("The Nightmare Before Christmas") include a colorful "crayon" seahorse and a "rhinestone" bluefish that's literally studded with rhinestones. They add a welcome whimsical touch to a movie that's often frozen in irony.

However, does a bloody pirate attack, complete with machetes and machine guns, really belong in the same movie with Little-Nemo-striped sugar crabs?

Another problem is the rivalry that develops between Zissou and Ned over Jane. It's too similar to the sexual dynamics between father-son figures in "Rushmore" (and it didn't work there either).

What does work is the marvelous cast who help us past the film's hermetically sealed smirk. Murray is wonderfully dyspeptic and deadpan as an old sea salt whose career is slowly drowning. Wilson sports a Colonel Sanders tie and courtly manner that suggests he could be for Ashley Wilkes' great-great-great-grandson. Dafoe is a walking sight gag in his very short short shorts. Blanchett has lots of fun clowning around with the guys, while Huston makes imperiousness a great running joke.

The pleasure of their company keeps "The Life Aquatic" afloat. By the end, you may find yourself wishing you had your own Zissou red cap and Speedo.