Given the amount of blockbuster nonsense I review on this blog - reaching a recent nadir with Transformers 3, it's high time I reset the balance by reviewing a proper film. With subtitles and everything. Yep, watch out world - this one's a readie!
The Big Picture is a French movie based on the novel of the same title by American author Douglas Kennedy. The original French movie title though is "l'homme qui voulait vivre sa vie", which google translates for me as "The Man Who Wanted To Live His Life". In many ways I think that's better, given the story that unfolds here... a story I'm loathe to reveal anything about. The less you know the better. Still...
Paul Exben is a successful lawyer, happy with his life - a beautiful wife, cute kids, an expensive suburban home. OK, it's not the life he always dreamed of... what he really wanted was to be a photographer... but dreams get sacrificed for family life, and Paul's making the most of the hand he's been dealt. Until he finds out his wife's been cheating on him with an old photographer pal - an unemployed rogue with none of Paul's prospects but all his former passion.
The film's first half hour is extremely novelistic. It takes time to introduce the characters and their ideal lifestyle, slowly revealing the cracks beneath the surface. And then... pow. Something nasty happens that "changes Paul's life forever". From then on The Big Picture becomes a gripping and consistently surprising thriller, yet a thriller that refuses to play by the rules. (Ignore the poster quote that calls Exben "a Riplyesque anti-hero", that's missing the point entirely.)
Paul goes on the run from his old life, and in any other film you'd expect the excitement and narrative drive to come from a chase. Someone in pursuit, trying to expose Paul's crime, for either justice or revenge. Yet Paul Exben isn't running from anyone else; he's running from his own guilt and shame. He is his own worst enemy. Even when he finds a new life in which he's finally able to realise his dreams - conscience, and ironically hubris, prove his downfall.
The star of The Big Picture is Romain Duris, a French actor so impossibly handsome it makes your eyes bleed just to look at him. You may know him from The Beat That My Heart Skipped, or his turn giving Vanessa Paradis a run for her money as Most Beautiful Person On Screen in Heartbreaker. This is by far his best role to date though - he's really something of a loser. A lovable loser, yes. A cool loser, undoubtedly. He reminded me throughout of Jemaine Clement from Flight of the Conchords, not just in shabby-geek looks, but also in his desperately naive "do the right thing" attitude. He is completely The Man Who Wanted To Live His Life. Unfortunately, his life has other plans.
