The Big Blue

The action centres on the rivalry between free-divers Barr and Reno - they dive deep without an aqualung - which begins when they are little boys. The first time you see someone plunging into alien blackness is exciting, but the novelty soon wears off. The first half-hour is the best part of the movie. Going through her usual kooky routine, Arquette plays a New York insurance agent who encounters Barr in Peru, and is captivated by his wide-eyed innocence (which others might describe as bovine stupidity). Her sole purpose seems to be to reassure the audience that there is nothing funny going on between best buddies Barr, who talks to dolphins, and Reno, a macho mother's boy (a performance of much comic credibility). The ending is the worst part of the movie: Barr rejects the pregnant Arquette in favour of going under one last time to become a dolphin-man. Such bathos reeks of cod-Camus. What lies in between is a series of CinemaScopic swathes of blue seas and white cliffs. Besson's film is exactly like his hero: very pretty but very silly.