I think my problem with The Life Aquatic is that I don't really like any of the characters *except* Steve. I just don't feel I know them. There are other things like the fact I just plain don't get the whole Jacques Cousteau spoof thing which goes a bit far into weirdness for me, plus things like the action sequence being crap (which Wes admits, so fair enough). BUT the last 15 minutes or so do kind of make it worth it, despite the fact that I do get pretty annoyed that Ned gets killed so his deadbeat dad can grow as a person or whatever.
That makes me sound like I dislike it a lot more than I do. :-P
Ooo, interesting! I tend to agree- I think that NONE of the characters come through as more than a series of quirks in TLA except for Steve. I just... I don't LIKE him for so long. Owen Wilson's accent (AND Cate's, come to think of it) annoys me so much that I react to the idea of Ned's death and what it means more than feel sad about NED dying- which is the same idea as before. Is it that TLA is some sort of crazy post-modern collection of forms rather than people? WHO CAN SAY. (not me, I run away from critical theory!)
I do suspect I feel for Steve simply because Steve is Bill Murray though. :-P
I think it's more the principle of killing someone in that rather cruel way (he spent all that time wanting to have a relationship with his father and then he dies? I mean, I know life is unfair but still) than my actually caring about him that bothers me, though it is in some ways quite an unusual performance for Owen so I do like that about the character. The thing is that even though everyone always goes on about Wes preferring style over substance, usually the characters feel extremely real to me and so there's a hole in TLA because they don't. (And this will sound stupid because it was about bloody cartoon animals, but it was the same with Fantastic Mr Fox as well.)
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That makes me sound like I dislike it a lot more than I do. :-P
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I think it's more the principle of killing someone in that rather cruel way (he spent all that time wanting to have a relationship with his father and then he dies? I mean, I know life is unfair but still) than my actually caring about him that bothers me, though it is in some ways quite an unusual performance for Owen so I do like that about the character. The thing is that even though everyone always goes on about Wes preferring style over substance, usually the characters feel extremely real to me and so there's a hole in TLA because they don't. (And this will sound stupid because it was about bloody cartoon animals, but it was the same with Fantastic Mr Fox as well.)
Cate's accent annoys the hell out of me!
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