Directed by:  Luc Besson
Written by:  Luc Besson, Robert Garland, Marilyn Goldin,
Jacques Mayol, Marc Perrier
Starring:  Jean-Marc Barr, Jean Reno, Rosanna Arquette,
Paul Shenar
 

August 28, 2000

         After being a fan of Luc Besson since The
Professional and Le Femme Nikita, I finally saw his tribute
to the sea, The Big Blue.  My first impression is that he set
out on a quest to show how well French actors can act
compared to American actors.  Every American actor, from
Rosanna Arquette to the very minor parts, seem like they
never took a day’s worth of acting classes.  Sure, the deep
blue scenery of the ocean is quite gorgeous, especially in
the beginning in black and white, but if the story and acting
lacks, you don’t have much with visual imagery, or at least
what you have is The Big Blue.
         The story follows friends Jacques Mayol (Barr) and
Enzo Molinari (Jean Reno from The Professional) from
childhood.  Their both divers, Enzo being older and more
macho, and Jacques being the sensitive one.  Of course
ditsy insurance agent Johanna (Arquette), giving one of her
performances, falls for Jacques because he’s the sensitive
one.  No love triangle commences like you would think,
but for the rest of the long drawn out two hours, Enzo and
Jacques compete to see who can dive the farthest down into
the big blue sea. 
         I will mention that this is the director’s cut, running
at 2hr 48mins; the original USA cut ran at 1hr 59 mins.  So
there’s a lot that’s been added in here, and I never saw the
original.  From what I read though, this was Besson’s
original cut, which is unfortunate.
         The beautiful images of Jacques swimming with the
dolphins just isn’t enough to warrant a long drawn out near
3hr movie.  A lot of the plot is repetitive and the acting just
makes it that much worse.  Don’t get me wrong, Barr and
Reno are fine, but everyone around them is just awful. 
         Besson seems to have gone around in a circle with
his career.  After this he did Le Femme Nikita and The
Professional, which were his two best films.  Then he went
downhill with The Fifth Element and The Messenger: The
Story of Joan of Arc. 

         There’s nothing impressive at all on the DVD.  The
only plus is that The Big Blue is shown in Widescreen,
which is great for the imagery.  The usual cast and crew
photo gallery and trailers are the only extras.  An isolated
music score is really worth nothing seeing that there’s big
blocks of no sound.  They sure didn’t put much effort into
this one.

Recommended Alternatives:  Le Femme Nikita, The
Professional (both d: Besson), Jaws

-Reviewed on DVD (also on Video)-