The Subplot IS the Story

Rating: 10/10 (13 October 2007)

I found this movie haunting, to say the least. After looking at so many of the other reviews, I was more than amazed that so many people hated it, but then I realized that they just didn't get it. Everyone seems to think the story is a romance (the love triangle) or a sports flick (the free diving), and that Jacques obsession with the sea is a mere subplot, but that's completely backwards. The romance and the free diving are just the mechanisms that Luc Besson uses to reveal the real story and to resolve the main character's emotional turmoil. The "subplot" lying deep beneath the other stories (what a brilliant analogy by Besson) is summed up in only a few scenes: the opening sequences that reveals Jacques love and fear of the sea; his admittedly bizarre relationship with dolphins as his family; the myth about the mermaids; the release of the female dolphin from captivity; and finally the end, where he fulfills the myth by proving that his love for the deep sea is pure and sincere so that she takes him away forever (to paraphrase the myth). It was this final image that haunted me for days and drove me to write this review. I agree with many people that the movie was quite long and had unrelated scenes, but so what. Besson's directing is great. The first appearance of the young Enzo, the first appearance of the older Jacques, Enzo's car and flamboyance, the tide of water flowing downward from the ceiling, and the very last scene, all these bold images were fantastic. By the time the movie is complete all that weight from above is focused down to that one instant when Jacques releases the lifeline. Luc Besson clearly demonstrated the art in film. It's a great flick, that's really all there is to it.