Overlong yet stylish and distinctive Luc Besson film

Rating: 7/10 (20 April 2018)

Two childhood friends who are free divers, one of whom has the almost supernatural ability to adjust his heart rate so that his vital signs are closer to a dolphins than a human, meet up after many years and take part in a contest to see who can dive the deepest without scuba gear. Love and friendship vie with the competitive spirit and the allure of the ocean to complicate matters.
The Big Blue is another product of the 80's French film movement, the cinéma du look. These films were typified by their adherence to cinematic style over dramatic substance. Director Luc Besson was one of the leading film-makers in this category and The Big Blue is perhaps his most personal film. It is slightly unusual for a Besson movie in that it isn't action-oriented in the traditional sense. The sport angle does of course have an element of drama but it's never really the focus at all and there isn't truthfully much tension in these scenes really. The story essentially focuses on a man who makes a choice between the friendship of a peer, the love of a woman or the elemental draw of the sea. The latter choice wins out quite clearly with the central character having an almost spiritual infinity with the ocean. Some of the underwater sequences here are beautifully presented and the cinematography in general is nice. It's a good looking film, yet despite being about deep water divers it does have a certain lack of depth dramatically. This isn't necessarily an issue for me but it does mean that it's two-an-a-half hour runtime does seem definitely excessive. This is not a story that required the epic treatment to be honest. Acting performances are generally good enough to engage though. Rosanna Arquette appears in a fairly under-written role but I thought she was still quite adorable and only went to serve further the oddness of the central character's decision in rejecting her for a life with the dolphins. On this note, we have an interesting and somewhat depressing ending which veers into dream-like fantasy territory - it's a bit of a downer of a denouncement, yet it is true to the material so I shouldn't complain too much over this. Ultimately, this is definitely an uneven and overlong movie but, like most of the others in the cinéma du look sub-genre, it improves with a re-watch and is certainly somewhat distinctive.