The Big Picture (2012)

88% of critics liked it
(41 reviews)
61% of users liked it
(1,402 ratings)

Paul Exben is a success story -- a great job, a beautiful wife and two wonderful sons. Except that this is not the life he has been dreaming of. A moment of madness is going to change his life, forcing him to assume a new identity that will enable him to live his life fully.

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Directed By: Eric Lartigau
Written By: Eric Lartigau, Laurent de Bartillat
Genres: Art House & International, Drama

In Theaters: Oct 12, 2012 Limited
On DVD: Mar 19, 2013
Studio: MPI Entertainment

Critic Reviews

Calvin Wilson, St. Louis Post-Dispatch
"The Big Picture" ends perhaps a bit too ambiguously, but there's something refreshing about its faith in the moviegoer's intelligence.
Moira MacDonald, Seattle Times
Director Eric Lartigau tells the story slowly, less interested in suspense than in character.
Walter V. Addiego, San Francisco Chronicle
Takes familiar material - involving a violent crime and an assumed identity - and nudges it just enough to keep us interested for most of the ride.
Michael O'Sullivan, Washington Post
It moves, with supple muscularity, toward a twisty and satisfying conclusion.
Ty Burr, Boston Globe
Duris is excellent, his hair and eyes growing wilder with each step of the journey, and he has solid support ...
Stephen Whitty, Newark Star-Ledger
A dark little fable, the story of two separate roads that briefly intersect - and what happens when a man suddenly jumps from one mapped journey to the other.
Marc Mohan, Oregonian
A decent-enough treat for fans of this particular Gallic genre.
Sarah Boslaugh, PopMatters
...the ambiguity of the French title, L'homme qui voulait vivre sa vie ("The man who wanted to live his life"), is a much better fit for the film that the rather bland English title...
Kelly Vance, East Bay Express
Makes full use of Duris' essential "lost" whimsicality.
Sean Means, Salt Lake Tribune
Director Eric Lartigau, adapting American author Douglas Kennedy's novel, keeps the tension building as Paul tries to leave behind his past and warily assume another person's life.
James Verniere, Boston Herald
Are you a fan of Patricia Highsmith's Ripley stories?
Peter Keough, Boston Phoenix
A word of advice to anyone who kills his wife's lover, fakes his own death, assumes the dead guy's name, and flees to a seaside Balkan town: leave the camera at home.
Ron Wilkinson, Monsters and Critics
Great photography and a vibrant performance by Romain Duris barely keep this lead-footed psycho-drama afloat.
Doris Toumarkine, Film Journal International
Sprawling crime drama about a high-achieving young Parisian lawyer forced to dump a seemingly picture-perfect life and go on the run is a suspenseful journey with emotional detours.
Scott Tobias, AV Club
For most of the way, right up until a hastily contrived and deeply unsatisfying ending, the film perceptively sketches a fractured identity, a man who enters a new life carrying painful remnants of the old.
Brent Simon, Shockya.com
To call it understated is its own special understatement; this is a film-as-character-study, but one that hovers drone-like over its subject rather than digging in for deep psychological insights.

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Featured Audience Ratings

Walter M

"The Big Picture" starts with the sounds of a baby crying that Paul(Romain Duris), a lawyer, answers, leaving his wife Sarah(Marina Fois) to enjoy her restful sleep a little longer. The following morning she gives him the cold shoulder at breakfast which even their older… More
"The Big Picture" starts with the sounds of a baby crying that Paul(Romain Duris), a lawyer, answers, leaving his wife Sarah(Marina Fois) to enjoy her restful sleep a little longer. The following morning she gives him the cold shoulder at breakfast which even their older son takes notice of. The day does not get any better for Paul when his friend and mentor Anne(Catherine Deneuve) informs him over sushi that she is dying. Sarah soon after tells him that she is giving up writing which only leads to another argument. As an amateur photographer, Paul is friends with Greg(Eric Ruf), a professional, later confronting him over fears that he is having an affair with Sarah... "The Big Picture" is a well-photographed, engaging and ironic movie about the nature of identity, even with one sizable contrivance. Along these same lines, it took me a while to realize how much a double entendre the title is. From clues scattered throughout the movie, it becomes clear that while Paul and Sarah may have started out at the same place of idealism in their young lives, somewhere along the way, their paths diverged widely, even as Paul tries to maintain his scruffy appearance. Part of that may involve an intervention for Paul, like the one he gives to a teenage client, by people who in feeling they had his best interests at heart, took away some critical part of his personality. So, years later, Sarah has an affair with somebody who reminds her of a younger Paul who Paul in return pretends to be, while also getting a glimpse of a possible future. While doing this in the most selfish way possible, he also learns quite a lot about himself in the process, thus explaining why the movie ends where it does.
Daniel P

A difficult to categorise, deeply immersive beautifully shot and acted anti-thriller. Romain Duris puts in a typically impressive performance as a hard-working father who had dreams of being a photographer which he put aside in favour of the security of a well paid job. When he… More
A difficult to categorise, deeply immersive beautifully shot and acted anti-thriller. Romain Duris puts in a typically impressive performance as a hard-working father who had dreams of being a photographer which he put aside in favour of the security of a well paid job. When he discovers his wife is having an affair with a professional photographer (who has yet to get his 'big break'), he confronts the man and in an altercation accidentally kills him. Rather than confessing (he fears he would be forever be labelled a murderer), he covers up the crime and in an elaborate plan, steal the photographer's identity and fakes his own death. Setting off with a camera he pursues the dream career he always wanted, but is now a broken wreck of a man looking to atone... There are at least half a dozen shifts in this wonderfully different film, all of which subtly change the tone of the film without interrupting the flow. Whilst the story occasionally indulges in coincidences for the most part the film feels realistic, and Duris' nuanced study really helps you to believe in him and essentially hope for his 'deliverance'. Stunningly cinematography, almost poetic editing and an open ending combined with spare writing mark <i>The Big Picture</i> out as one of the masterpieces of French cinema. Really worth tracking down.

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Cast

Romain Duris
as Paul Exben
Marina Foïs
as Sarah Exben
Niels Arestrup
as Bartholomé
Catherine Deneuve
as Anne
Branka Katic
as Ivana
Eric Ruf
as Grégoire Kremer
Enzo Caçote
as Hugo Exben
Rachel Berger

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The Big Picture (2012)

Critic Reviews

Featured Audience Ratings

Walter M

Daniel P

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