Bill Murray lends his “Lost In Translation” dry humor to lead Team Zissou, a diving team of explorers, determined to hunt down a shark that ate his best friend. Zissou (Murray) is a wash-up documentary filmmaker with a Jacques Cousteau fetish who soon discovers he has something new to explore – a relationship with an unknown son (Owen Wilson) who shows up as his number one groupy and instant protégé. Director Wes Anderson seems to always weave the absent/distant father plot into his films. Jeff Goldblum plays Zissou’s bizarre competition at sea, while William Dafoe is his right hand mate and Cate Blanchett a really-into-the-mission, reporter. Murray and Wilson re-team for the first time with Anderson since last doing “The Royal Tannenbaums.” And like that quirky film or even “Rushmore” before it, the deadpan nonchalant-ness of these characters is what drives the comedy to deliver clever, emotional impact, in a disarming way. Anjelica Huston rounds out the team of valium-phased players as Zissou’s rich, estranged wife, who always shows up smoking a cigarette, yet should never be underestimated for her power as a player, since it is she who has ‘been the brains behind Team Zissou” according to her husband.
