The Life Aquatic

I had to see The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou after hearing a friend compare it unfavourably to one of my favourite movies, Magnolia. Really, they're not much alike. Neither director, Wes Anderson or Paul Thomas Anderson, has created another film I've seen, so it's hard to compare styles. But consider Bill Murray, Angelica Huston, Jeff Goldblum and Cate Blanchett fulfilling somewhat characteristic performances in The Life Aquatic versus a highly idiosyncratic film with Julianne Moore, John C. Reilly, Philip Seymour Hoffman and Tom Cruise performing startling roles and performances.

They are both about the unpredictable chaos of life, but while Magnolia focuses on exceptional (sympathetic) characters in extreme circumstances, the people in Life Aquatic are humorously mundane. Bill Murray is good at doing those normal, crazy people we all know, or are. It is dark, though. The funniest line in the whole movie, delivered indifferently by Huston: "You're cat died." Further humour is provided by the utter cheesiness of the underwater special effects.

It's nowhere near as gripping or compelling as Magnolia, but there's so much going on in some scenes that it will require multiple viewings to catch the nuances and references. In this way, they're similarly satisfying.

Winterfest

Marian and me


Deb, the program coordinator at Two Rivers, took this photo a few minutes ago in Lyon Park. That's Roy on the left, Rachel on the right, and I don't know the fellow in red. I'm wearing the beautiful toque-scarf Danny gave me last year, which this mild winter has given me few opportunities to wear (it was much appreciated today). Yesterday it would have been Mudfest, but all this snow fell since overnight. We had some snow painting and tug-o'-war, but people weren't staying long because of the cold wind. Marian was keeping her hands warm on top of the barbecue. I had volunteered to help, but there seemed to be enough staff to handle the people coming out, so we left after an hour. We're departing for Toronto in a few minutes.