The Big Blue

Included in the spate of summer re-releases is this 1988 Luc Besson film about competitive deep-sea diving. The Big Blue concerns itself with some big themes, like the love between a man and a woman, the pull of the sea, and the necessary machismo that accompanies any competitive sport. It’s all very French (although the film is mostly English-speaking) and uniformly beautiful to look at. For the re-release, Besson tacked back on 40 more minutes (missing from the original American release) and changed the previous happy ending back to something - more French. Although it’s hard not to applaud a director’s ability to release his work the way he intended it, the extra footage here doesn’t add up to much more than an excruciatingly long three hours. That said, the squirm factor doesn’t detract from the film’s overall elegance. Barr and Reno counterbalance each other well as boyhood friends who grow up to be rivals. Barr (Breaking the Waves) plays Jacques, the emotionally wounded one who communicates badly with humans and best with dolphins, and the always fantastic Reno (The Professional, Mission: Impossible) plays Enzo, all ego and bombast. Arquette is more of a wild card here; sometimes her patented flakiness is dead-on, other times it falls flat in the face of the others’ grace. But despite the length and the spottiness of Arquette’s performance, The Big Blue soaks up the big screen in a splendor that’s meant to be seen.