to be his long-lost progeny to his
financier, Oseary Drakoulias: "Oseary, this is probably my son Ned."
Analysis: Murray's face has ripened into pathos -- the kind
of emotion the younger Murray would have satirized as phony and indulgent. But
what Murray does is not the teary "Love me! Love me!" pathos of Chaplin, but the
stoic, dry-eyed pathos of Keaton. He knows that the whole movie is deeply silly
-- a lark, a folly -- even as he keeps one toe submerged in a pool of
melancholy. Without the strong undercurrent of repressed emotion that Murray
provides, Wes Anderson's "The Life Aquatic" wouldn't float. No, it
would wander off like a hot air balloon. Steve Zissou's heavy heart is the
movie's anchor.
(Touchstone Pictures)
Which is your fave Murray flick? Write us at heymsn@microsoft.com
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Jim Emerson is the
former editor of Microsoft's online/CD-ROM movie encyclopedia, Cinemania. He has
written a lot over the years, mostly about movies, for many publications and Web
sites, and is now the editor of RogerEbert.com, where he also publishes his
blog, Scanners (blogs.suntimes.com/scanners) Close
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