Wonderfully human and honest epic about romantic love versus one's life passion

Rating: Null/10 (8 July 2003)

Seems like this film divides people on this board, which is always a sure guarantee that there's something to talk about. For me, THE BIG BLUE is simply a masterpiece, a wonderfully-shot, wonderfully funny and wonderfully human and honest epic about romantic love versus one's life passion. There is so much I'd love to say in praise of this film, but I just can't put into words the moods of exquisite melancholy and hope conjured by Besson, cinematographer Carlo Verini and composer Eric Serra (note - this review refers only to the full-length European version without the Bill Conti score, happy Hollywood ending, etc.). I think a lot of people miss the point of the ending (**SPOILER**). All too often the reaction is: "Huh? He leaves Rosanna Arquette to become some kind of half-man half-dolphin at the bottom of the ocean? What the heck is THAT about?" For me, the ending is symbolic, not to be taken literally, just as Jacques' fevered dream of his bedroom becoming the sea is not to be taken literally (another analogy would be Renton disappearing down the toilet bowl and swimming in "Trainspotting"). It doesn't happen - it's just a visual metaphor. As I interpret it, Jacques does indeed leave the soon-to-be mother of his child. He knows, and she knows, and we the viewers know that he just cannot, when it comes to the crunch, commit to her as wholeheartedly as to his life's passion, the sea. We see the signs at various points in the film, especially during the truly unnerving scene in which he abandons her when she's trying to talk to him, by doing one of his virtuoso dives. A character as "pure", as driven by passion as he is cannot compromise. Rather than focus partly on his woman and partly on the sea, he choses to focus wholeheartedly on the latter. Even the news that he is going to be a father cannot alter his decision. Ever since he was a small boy and his own father drowned, Jacques' life has been an obsessive quest to in some way master the sea, master diving, and somehow cheat the death his father had, almost in revenge for it. This film could so easily have delivered a happy ending (indeed, I understand that in the US version it does), and given the tremendous highs and lows, the comic joy, the thrilling dives, the scene-stealing dolphins and the sexual chemistry of Jean-Marc Barr and Rosanna Arquette with which it dazzles us, such a happy ending would not have left viewers feeling let down. Instead, Besson pulls off a master stroke, showing us how human beings can fail to connect with each other, and how even great loves are doomed to flicker out in the face of other, greater obsessions. Alternatively, the ending may be read as Jacques' brief descent to say his goodbyes to the depths and to the past before surfacing to take up a happy future life with his lover and their child. But the guts to fashion an ending open to interpretation is the icing on the cake of a tremendous film that is both a celebration of and meditation on life, life's passions, and romantic love. Simply amazing stuff.