The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou

The relentlessly detailed vision of writer/director Wes Anderson is both exhilarating and exhausting. The young Texan has gathered quite a following for his unique concoction of slightly artificial worlds inhabited by awkwardly sincere, often flawed characters. Anderson's breakthrough, 1998's Rushmore, nearly collapsed amid its whimsy. But it gets exponentially better with each viewing. The same can be said of his stellar screwball follow-up, The Royal Tenenbaums, which proved he could manage a larger pallet and topflight cast (even if Gene Hackman threatened to kick his ass during filming.)

Now comes The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, his most elaborate creation to date. Zissou is a Jacque Cousteau-like filmmaker -- played by a soulfully understated Bill Murray -- suffering a midlife crisis of epic proportions as his once fruitful career is going to shit.

Murray leads a game cast -- Cate Blanchett, Anjelica Huston, Willem Dafoe and a never better Owen Wilson -- through a variety of plot twists with varying degrees of success. Zissou's boat, The Bellafonte, is a glorious creation brought to life with a set straight out of a Richard Scary children's book, perfect for Anderson's long, lovingly rendered tracking shots. The scenes set in the interior of the Bellafonte sync perfectly with Anderson's whimsical vision. But when the action heads for land, such as a largely ludicrous island raid to rescue a kidnapped crew member, the shift in tone is less than convincing. The problem? Violence requires a degree of reality.

As frustrating as it is fascinating, The Life Aquatic is nothing if not ambitious. If I sound hard on Anderson, it's only because the guy is capable of so much.

As was the case with Rushmore and Tenenbaums, The Life Aquatic gets a plush Criterion release, which is slightly puzzling for a distributor of such discerning taste. The two-disc set has a plethora of special features, the most intriguing of which is a video journal by the film's real-life intern (and actor), Matthew Gray Gubler. The film's audio commentary by Anderson and co-writer Noah Baumbach is recorded in the restaurant where the pair met each day while writing the script. Peripheral conversations and clinking water glasses invade their informative discussion, just another sign of Anderson's obsession with setting a scene. And the rest
In Good Company (Universal), the latest from writer/director Paul Weitz (About A Boy), finds veteran ad exec Dan Foreman (Dennis Quaid) being usurped by half-his-age upstart Carter Dureya (Topher Grace) in a film that gets away with more than it should. The chemistry between the two leads is genuine, despite a script that tries too hard to say something poignant about contemporary corporate culture. Scarlett Johansson, as Foreman's daughter and the target of Carter's affection, again dominates most every scene in which she appears with a gravitational pull rare in any actress. Charming and oddly affecting, In Good Company often lives up to its name.