The Big Picture
MPI Media Group | Release Date: October 12, 2012 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
71
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 13 Critic Reviews
Positive:
8
Mixed:
5
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
90
The New York TimesStephen HoldenOct 12, 2012
Paul is not a sociopath like Tom Ripley, and the movie does not convey the same diabolical Hitchcockian sense of being manipulated by a slightly sadistic master puppeteer. As the story sprawls across the screen, it darts from one incident to the next as though it were inventing itself as it goes along. Read full review
88
New York PostFarran Smith NehmeOct 11, 2012
Much of the plot stretches credulity, but the way it's constructed keeps tension high. Read full review
75
Portland OregonianMarc MohanDec 13, 2012
A decent-enough treat for fans of this particular Gallic genre. Read full review
75
St. Louis Post-DispatchCalvin WilsonDec 7, 2012
The Big Picture ends perhaps a bit too ambiguously, but there's something refreshing about its faith in the moviegoer's intelligence. Read full review
75
Boston GlobeTy BurrOct 25, 2012
The movie feels loose and unpredictable. You're never sure where Paul or the story is going, and while that makes The Big Picture unexpectedly gripping for much of its running time, the shapelessness ultimately wins out. Read full review
75
The A.V. ClubScott TobiasOct 10, 2012
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. Read full review
70
NPRMark JenkinsOct 11, 2012
The Big Picture has been compared to "The Talented Mr. Ripley," the twice-filmed Patricia Highsmith novel about a sociopath who kills and then impersonates a rich acquaintance. But in spirit it's closer to Michelangelo Antonioni's 1975 "The Passenger," with Jack Nicholson as an existential adventurer who poses as a dead stranger. Read full review
70
Village VoiceChris PackhamOct 10, 2012
For most of the film, Lartigau creates the tension of a Hitchcockian thriller solely through Paul's interior struggle. Read full review
60
EmpireDavid ParkinsonOct 10, 2012
A few plot holes hold back what is otherwise a well cast and compelling picture. Read full review
60
The GuardianPeter BradshawOct 10, 2012
The direction from Eric Lartigau keeps things moving along fast and furious: preposterous it may be, the movie is carried off with some style. Read full review
60
Time OutDavid FearOct 10, 2012
The Big Picture is really Duris's picture; the actor toggles effortlessly between arrogant, feral, remorseful and ruthless as the plot throws one curveball after the next. Read full review
60
Total FilmTom DawsonOct 10, 2012
Built around a multilayered performance from Duris, it's a film unafraid to pose more questions than it answers. Read full review
50
Slant MagazineCalum MarshOct 10, 2012
Like its protagonist, the film sells out for the security of convention and complacency. Read full review
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