In 1998, Wes Anderson made a little gem of a movie called "Rushmore," immediately establishing himself as a master of offbeat comedy and revitalizing the then-flagging career of Bill Murray.

With "The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou," Anderson and Murray are together again, this time for a very odd little picture that is a parody of the Jacques Cousteau undersea adventure movies of the '70s, a movie about the unreality of the making of "documentaries" and another of Anderson's twisted views of family.

Family also is a way to describe the film's cast. In addition to Murray, other Anderson regulars in the picture include Angelica Huston, Seymour Cassel and Owen Wilson, Anderson's former writing partner now replaced by Noah Baumbach.

Murray stars as Zissou, a would-be Cousteau, who is running out of money and time. As the picture opens, his latest movie flops. But he has a mission — to catch the jaguar shark that ate his partner and closest friend Esteban (Cassel).

To do so, he heads out to sea in the Belafonte (get the joke?), whose crew includes engineer Klaus (Willem Dafoe playing goofy and emotional), his wife and chief financier Eleanor (Huston at her most regal) and Pele (Brazilian actor Seu Jorge), who does nothing but sit around the ship and play acoustic guitar versions of songs by David Bowie.

Also on board for the voyage are pregnant English journalist Jane (Cate Blanchett), a bond company numbers cruncher (Bud Cort) and a pilot who may or may not be Zissou's son. Ned Plimpton (Wilson) doesn't look or act anything like Zissou. But his mother knew the adventurer, and Ned's convinced that he's Steve's boy.

Among the subplots that swirl through the movie along with the father and son story and the goofy crew are Zissou's financial failings, which threaten to scuttle the Belafonte, his relationship with his slick rival Alistair Hennessey (Jeff Goldblum), Zissou's jealous about the budding relationship between Ned and Jane and the looming threat of pirates as the ship tries to track down the jaguar shark.

That's enough to keep three or four movies afloat, which ensures that "The Life Aquatic" never slows down enough to get close to dull. The interplay between the odd, but somehow familiar characters played by a strong cast having some fun also provides plenty of opportunity for laughs.

The biggest problem with "The Life Aquatic" is that it has even less heart than "The Royal Tenenbaums," Anderson's last film. That movie was redeemed by its quirkiness and some great performances.

Here it's really hard to care about any of the characters, and one man's irony can quickly become another's smugness.

That's always a danger for screen's kind of irony Murray, whose best acting came when he played off that image in last year's "Lost in Translation." Here, he's distant, cool and funny, but never quite real.

That flaw in its central character doesn't mean that "The Life Aquatic" is unwatchable or never funny. If you like Anderson's sense of humor, there's plenty to be enjoyed in the movie.

What it does mean is that "The Life Aquatic" falls short of the standard he set for himself with "Rushmore" and "The Royal Tenenbaums."

Reach L. Kent Wolgamott at 473-7244 or kwolgamott@journalstar.com.