Beautiful cinematography with some terrific performances from the cast makes up most of the flaws.

Rating: 8/10 (5 July 2008)

From the mid 1960's in Greece, a young boy named Jacques (Bruce Guerre-Berthelot) lost his father, when he died from a serious unexpected accident from losing pressure being under the sea. Which it traumatized him over the years until he becomes an man. Over twenty years has passed, Jacques (Jean Marc-Barr) is a professional diver, who longs under the sea without air for several minutes. When an assurance investigator from New York named Johana (Rosanna Arquette) falls in love with Jacques meeting him at first sight. She becomes very fascinated with this interesting if very shy man. Jacques' best friend Enzo (Jean Reno) wants him to be his rival at the diving competition. Which Enzo is the current diving champion. Johana becomes close friends with Jacques and Enzo, which she's enjoying their company. But Jacques is often quite unusual, since he feels more connected with the sea and the dolphin than any human begins. While Johana and Jacques fall in love, they try very hard to make their relationship work.
Directed by Luc Besson (The Fifth Element, The Messenger:The Story of Joan of Arc, Subway) made an intriguing if flawed film about the sea, diving, love and friendships. Carlo Varini's widescreen cinematography is one of the true highlights of this movie. Which it looks great on land and especially in the sea. The picture comes alive... when they focus on the sea, especially the deep diving sequences and Jacques's connections to the dolphins are the film's best moments. Barr's performance is especially good but Reno steals the show with his often good hearted performance as the man, who compete's endlessly with his best friend. Arquette's role is annoying at first but her character improves during the second half.
I never seen the original U.S. version, which it was shorter and it had Bill Conti's score. I am sure the characterization of the American Cut didn't make much sense as the french version did and it had Eric Serra's original score. This is the review for the Director's Cut, which he added 50 minutes more in this new version. Besson added more character development to make them more satisfying than they were in the U.S. and French versions. Sometimes the feature switches mood from being a Drama, Comedy and Fantasy. Which it is not entirely successful.
DVD has an sharp if occasionally grainy anamorphic Widescreen (2.35:1) transfer and an good Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound. DVD includes an isolated music score, a brief photo gallery, cast & crew information and the U.S. theatrical trailer (The American trailer makes it looked like it was a big Science-Fiction adventure, which it's not). "The Big Blue" must have been something at the big screen for sure. Of course, it doesn't reach the same impact on video. Overall i liked this movie but i didn't loved it. At times, i felt "The Big Blue" was empty experience at times. I just think Besson did better movies as a director, screenwriter or producer. I think he had different opinions from the screenwriters, since he wrote it with four other writers. But for sure, it was a personal project for Besson and i respect that. "The Big Blue" is a good one but if they were playing it at the film festival and i finally get to see it in a movie theater. I would see it again... only at the Big Screen. Technovision. (*** ½/*****).