The Justin/Jeff Project: The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou (2004)

In the spirit of the Julie/Julia project in which writer Julie Powell chronicles cooking all of the recipes in Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking, 524 recipes in 365 days, I bring you the Jeff/Justin project. The Justin/Jeff project chronicles my descent into the filmography of Jeff Goldblum and will take as much time as it takes.

If Jeff Goldblum were to die tomorrow, and I pray to God that he does not, the film The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou (as well as Goldblum himself) would be considered late-Goldblum. This means that you shouldn't expect some skinny kid who is just trying to get his name and his face out there (Annie Hall) and you shouldn't expect an unlikely blockbuster hero (Independence Day) - you should expect Jeff Goldblum to focus on interesting characters in movies that not a lot of people watch (Igby Goes Down). The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou is probably one of the highest grossing films of Jeff Goldblum's later years (though I fear that gimmicky chick flick The Switch may have surpassed this number), but it still holds on to, and in many ways defines, the Independent feel and character complexity that Goldblum has chosen to pursue in these, his latter years.

In The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, Jeff Goldblum plays Captain Alistair Hennessey, the nemesis of Steve Zissou (Bill Murray). Though he is described as the antagonist to the protagonist and namesake of the film, this is certainly not an evil and good, harmful and helpful, black cowboy and white cowboy sort of thing. Like the works of Dostoyevsky (The Brothers Karamazov) or Mitchell Hurwitz (Arrested Development), this is a story of a group of individuals whose faults outnumber their virtues, none of them good by any definition, but all of them struggling together through the situations in life that everyone faces, love and loss, crime and punishment, rivalry, revenge, forgiveness and hope. Alistair Hennessey may be the declared nemesis of Steve Zissou, but this is almost a throw-away description. The two men spat and battle and tussle and groan but in the end they are enveloped in a narrative that is bigger than just the two of them.

Hennessey is the former husband of Eleanor Zissou (Anjelica Huston), Steve Zissou's former wife. Early in the film he is portrayed as stylish and debonair, occasionally wooing Eleanor, but possibly only because it gets under Steve Zissou's skin. It seems very likely that Hennessey's days of chasing woman have come to an end, and this is supported by the fact that he declares himself half-gay. When this morsel of information is revealed, the viewer suddenly understands why the crew of Hennessey's ship (which, if I'm not mistaken, is called The Hennessey) is comprised of attractive, boyish men and also why Hennessey would walk around his ship in a bath robe. A man with money is likely to surround himself with the things he loves, and if this is any measure then Alistair Hennessey loves men, big ships, fancy parties, real estate, research vessels, research turtles and fancy coffee makers.

The most interesting part of Alistair Hennessey's story, if I'm to be considered any sort of judge, is when The Belafonte has been attacked by pirates and Hennessey is the captain of the rescue ship. Zissou is in his moment of greatest need. The ship has taken enough damage to render it dead in the water. The crew has just been roughed up by pirates who stole much of the ship's contents and abducted the bank stooge. The damage from the pirates alone will cost more than Zissou can reasonably raise. When Hennessey encounters Zissou, he does not respond with kindness and caring. He responds coldly and calculatingly, charging Steve for every single extra cost that will come about in tugging his ship to dry land. Where one might expect compassion even from ones enemy, Hennessey pledges only to continue his rivalry with Zissou, stacking fuel on the fire of their mutual hatred.

Things are soon turned on their heads. As Zissou and crew approach the Ping Islands, they encounter The Hennessey, destroyed and almost completely submerged. Zissou wishes a great many bad things on Hennessey, but I doubt death at the hands of pirates is one of them. When Zissou and crew stumble upon these pirates, Alistair Hennessey is sitting among them, alive, but this may not last long. Hennessey is shot in the chest by a pirate and a gunfight ensues between Team Zissou and the pirates of Ping. Zissou has no time to thin about rivalries, about the price of Hennessey's rescue. There is only time to act. Zissou and crew hold off the pirates long enough for Hennessey to escape with them. (It is almost in vain, because as Team Zissou takes cover against the gunfire Hennessey stands, dumbly, in the line of fire, holding his chest wound. By the grace of cinema, however, he isn't further wounded.) Through clever use of pirate ex machina, Hennessey and Zissou dissolve their rivalry, at least temporarily. A common enemy will do that. They find common ground in the fact that they are both bad husbands (though Hennessey excuses his behavior on account of being half gay). Their bond is strong enough that Zissou includes Hennessey in the enormous crew of the tiny submarine he pilots to find his true enemy, the leopard shark, another rival that Zissou finds peace with.

Alistair Hennessey is a giant leap in acting for Jeff Goldblum from his first role as Freak #1 in Death Wish. Rather than a nameless criminal, Goldblum takes on a role that is probable best described as a kind of brother to Murray's Zissou. In East of Eden, John Steinbeck describes every set of brothers as sharing something in common with Cain and Abel. Zissou and Hennessey fit this mold perfectly. One has gained favor and the other has not, but we're given a creative solution to the murder story of Cain and Abel. We're given the possibility of redemption in human relationships. Unlike my write-up of Goldblum in Death Wish, I don't need to write some fake happy ending for Alistair Hennessey. I expect that Hennessey and Zissou bicker in some comedic fashion for the rest of their natural lives, and honestly I wouldn't want it any other way.