Wes Anderson's latetest, The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, has been receiving some decidedly luke warm reviews from both critics and the viewing public alike.

The general consensus seems to be that this particular aquatic adventure is too water logged for its own good.

I can understand how people might be disappointed - sometimes the dialogue is more stilted than dead-pan, and there is a fussy cleverness to everything, from the convoluted story line, to the costumes - but I have to say that I completely, unreservedly loved this film.

I adored this film.

I'm sure my undisguised affection for Life Aquatic points to something flimsy and frivolous in my character. But I don't care. I stand by Wes. This was a cracker of a flick. It was silly and vain, self-referentially clever and quite utterly ridiculous. And I loved it.

The story, such as it is, goes something like this:

Internationally famous oceanographer Steve Zissou (Bill Murray) and his crew — Team Zissou — set sail on an expedition to hunt down the mysterious, elusive, possibly non-existant Jaguar Shark that killed Zissou's partner during the documentary filming of their latest adventure. They are joined on their voyage by a young airline co-pilot who may or may not be Zissou's son (Owen Wilson), a beautiful journalist (Cate Blanchett) assigned to write a profile of Zissou, and Zissou's estranged wife and co-producer, Eleanor (Anjelica Houston).

The character Steve Zissou is, of course, loosely based on Jacques Cousteau, the world-renowned and much admired French ocean explorer and documentary maker.

As the aging Zissou (who appears to have lost his mojo), Murray is charming, infantile, narcissitic, self absorbed and curiously, surprisingly touching.

Murray is an extraordinarily charismatic actor, and I think part of what makes The Life Aquatic so enjoyable, is the fact that Murray is given so much screen time. I can never have enough of him. And kudos goes to Wes Anderson (and Sofia Coppola) in allowing Murray to explore his dramatic capabilities. Murray can nail a scene like no actor working today. He can take a piece of dialogue, which in less capable hands might become maudlin or mundane, and inject his own pathos and idiosyncratic, exuberant energy to give us something utterly unique, and uniquely astonishing.

He is quite simply brilliant. And thank god he is finally getting the work (if not the Oscars) he deserves.