The Diving Bell and the Butterfly - B

In theaters January 4. Rated PG-13, 114 minutes. Trailer.

Based on the book of the same name, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly is a film about life, the human spirit and love as seen through a man stricken with locked-in syndrome in the prime of his life. Jean-Dominique Bauby was the editor of Elle magazine in Paris with three young children at the time of his stroke, which left him totally paralyzed except for his right eye. Given the excessively high marks this has been getting from critics, I was expecting to be blown away. I enjoyed the film and acknowledge its visual spectacle, but felt like it was an artier version of the Sea Inside, another Euro-subtitled film about paralysis. Click below to keep reading "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly - B".

The film opens with an extended sequence in the hospital when "Jean-Do" wakes up, and our perspective is his, partially clouded and limited to his one eye. His frustration with the doctors and his inner dialogue is poignant and funny as he comes to learn about his state of living. Director Julian Schnabel intercuts the film with scenes from Jean-Do's high flying Parisian lifestyle and his relationship with his apartment bound father (Max Von Sydow). His relationship with his father is touching and those scenes are the best parts of the film due to their emotional nature and loving dialogue. Jean-Do has 3 children with the beautiful Celine, but he left them for a mistress named Ines. Celine visits him regularly while Ines refuses to come.

Jean-Do's inner dialogue is spunky and comical, especially his gentle learing at his 2 attractive physical therapists. Henriette is charged with developing a method of communication, which involves blinking and using a chart to slowly spell out each word so he can communicate (she reads the letters and he blinks when the letter he wants to use is called). This allows him to write the book the film is based on, and to communicate on a limited basis with his friends and family. When Ines finally does call, Celine is the only one around and must painfully translate his desires to Ines.

Jean-Do's character turned me off because of this scene and his relative indifference to his family in favor of the attractive nurses. He expresses remorse and regret at times throughout the film, but really only pays it lip service. There are several realistic scenes about the logistics of his physical condition, and the sequences with the diving bell (an old-timey deep sea diving suit that symbolizes being locked in his body) and the butterfly (which he imagines to lift himself up) are effective. His situation reminded me of the final scene of Being John Malkovich when John Cusack's character is trapped inside the child of Cameron Diaz and Catherine Keener in its claustrophobia and sense of hopelessness.

Worth renting, but not one of the ten (or twenty) best of the year.