The Big Picture The Big Picture

Getting the Life You Want Means Losing the Life You Have.

Paul Exben is a success story – partner in one of Paris's most exclusive law firms, big salary, big house, glamorous wife and two sons straight out of a Gap catalog. But when he finds out that Sarah, his wife, is cheating on him with Greg Kremer, a local photographer, a rush of blood provokes Paul into a fatal error.

Romain Duris Marina Foïs Catherine Deneuve Niels Arestrup Esteban Carvajal Alegria Branka Katić Eric Ruf Enzo Caçote Luka Antic Rachel Berger

Europa Corp.

foreign drama thriller

114 mins   More details at IMDb / TMDb

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  • gemmaking

    Review by gemmaking ★★

    Goodness gracious, Marina Fois is a sourpuss. And Romain Duris plays the same character in every movie he has ever been in ever. Ever.

  • FakeRobHunter

    Review by FakeRobHunter ★★★

    Suspenseful drama about being forced by circumstance to abandon your old life and embrace the one you've always wanted.

  • Felipe Lemos

    Review by Felipe Lemos ★★½

    final bem fdp nao fecha o ciclo! mas enredo muito bom

  • Sophie Heppell

    Review by Sophie Heppell ★★★½

    It had me hooked this film. The cinematography was gorgeous and the locations stunning.

  • Adam Cook

    Review by Adam Cook ★★★½

    This French thriller with an existential twist offers easy comparisons with Michelangelo Antonioni’s, The Passenger, (if nothing else but for its stolen identity conceit) but in many ways I found it a more rewarding experience thanks to its stronger emotional connection. Paul is a successful lawyer living a seemingly perfect life in Paris yet his marriage is failing and he has become dissatisfied by his safe life choices. Following a deadly scuffle with his wife’s lover (Greg) he is thrust into a new life, quite literally as he steals the identity of his dead neighbour, and sets out to live anew as a photographer.

    The film is split into two clear halves - the old life full of ennui and…

  • Robert Reineke

    Review by Robert Reineke ★★★½

    Sort of an existential "thriller" that Antonioni might have made. Beautifully photographed and well acted by Romain Duris as the lead, it's perhaps a bit slight and underdeveloped overall. I don't know if it ever really develops what "the big picture" for the protagonist is supposed to be, but there's plenty of lovely moments including accidental atonement to go with an accidental crime.

  • Mujunen

    Review by Mujunen ★★★½

    This is a French film and it's also a big reason why it's does seem to be full of clichés (which it is actually full of) as something made by an American and with the same story would be. I just gotta say I love French films, and that has no reason to it. The story has so many elements and parts/aims/sections that its hard to describe. And this is why the movie also ends without an end...

  • Iain Dickie

    Review by Iain Dickie ★★★★

    Paul Exben seemingly has it all beautiful wife and kids, excellent job in a top Paris law firm, but things go wrong when Paul finds his wife is having an affair with a photographer. Paul confronts his wife's lover and a tragic accident sees Paul taking the man's identity and hiding out in Serbia, where he starts to enjoy living a simple life, but how long will it last.

    I really enjoyed this, even if it isn't very original, Romain Duris is excellent and Niels Arestrup shows up later in a small part.

  • scott gibbons

    Review by scott gibbons ★★★★

    i saw the lead in another film, the TERRIBLE film Heartbreakers, a film that showed french cinema can produce god awful main stream cinema like anyone else...but here we see what french cinema can really do great and he is also fantastic. a story about a business man about to inherit the company he works for and how his married life and lost dreams are conflictions in his life, but a unfortunate incident brings this guy to a head and will lead him into a direction that will suit him perfectly. a well handled crime film that is more than the actuall crime, a story about family breakdown and discovering your lost dreams, it goes into a interesting place that is welcome.