The Big Blue review

 Number 628 on the top 1000 films of all time is Luc Besson's French sports drama 'The Big Blue.'

Although The Big Blue was based on a real story, it is largely dramatised and fictionalised. It tells the friendship and later rivalry of two leading 20th century free divers Jacques Mayol (Jean-Marc Barr) and Enzo Molinari (Jean Reno.) It co-stars Rosanna Arquette as Mayol's fictional girlfriend Johana Baker.

This was very much the case of a film not landing properly for its audience. Its audience being me. Maybe a different audience would have appreciated this film more, but I found it overly-long, tedious and bloated. Perhaps that's because I had unknowingly watched the director's cut which is a good half-hour longer than the original version. But perhaps another reason is that the film was just boring with some strange casting choices.

I was a little puzzled as to why the very French Jean Reno was playing the very Italian Enzo Molinari (renamed from Enzo Maiorca.) Of course there is nothing wrong with an actor playing a character of a different nationality, but you would at least expect that actor to do the accent of their character. Jean Reno sounded as French as anything. It was like watching Sean Connery play the Italian Maiorca with his thick Scottish accent. Distracting to say the least.

The Big Blue reminded me a little of the film Rush. This film told of the rivalry between two famed racing car drivers: James Hunt and Nikki Lauda. Similar in plot to the Big Blue, but also similar in the annoyingness of the characters. Of course, it's impossible to become a champion of anything without having confidence in yourself, but there is a difference between confidence and arrogance. Hunt and Lauda, and, by extension, Molinari and Mayol definitely strayed into the arrogant territory. As their rivalry grew, so did their egos. And so did their unlikability as characters. True the producers did take lots of dramatic license, but it wasn't the best-employed.

All in all, the Big Blue was a pretty missable film. I don't think my life would have changed much if I hadn't seen it or its unlikable characters that I had no reason to care or root for.