The Diving Bell and the Butterfly: Review By moviegeek

Communication is one the most vital things we possess. It sets us apart from other forms of life (*cough* "trees", anyone? anyone?). If that one aspect is taken away from our life, we are left to a lonely world. You cannot relate to anyone. You can no longer express yourself.

Such is the ordeal afflicted upon Jean-Dominique Bauby after a stroke. Paralyzed from head to toe, unable to even swallow, let alone speak, he lives his life through one working eye, which he blinks in a coded succession to a patiently enduring therapist. As she reads off a list of letters to him, waiting for him to blink at the correct one, he eventually forms words, even sentences. "I W-A-N-T D-E-A-T" he begins to spell before the therapist stops and reprimands him.

What does he have to live for though? Where does he have yet to go? He barely alive, merely a vegetable to his friends (A carrot? A pickle? he wonders). We can hear his thoughts, but no one else can. But through his spurious communication, he is able to write a book.

Visually, this is both enchanting and captivating. The focus is rambunctious and off-beat. The framing is non-existent. We are basically watching this movie through the one working eye of this man. It is beautiful, astonishing, and magnificent to look at; a true technical wonder.

The Diving Bell and the Butterfly is a heartbreaking film as well. Jean-Do (a nickname) spends a Father's Day with his kids on the beach. He comments on how his son wiped the drool off his drooping lips. How his children cried that they couldn't talk to him.

This isn't a masterpiece, however. The largest drawback is that the picture is distant. Instead of being tangible, the film was a constant reminder of how it was a film. It never got inside of me. This is a technical masterpiece. It is even a storytelling masterpiece. But there is not much story to tell.

I can't really call this movie dull because, frankly, it had my attention the entire time. But there never seemed to be a real sense of beginning, middle, or end. The movie flatlined, instead of moving up and down, until it lumbered its way to a detached ending.

Distant or not, this is a wonder to look at. I, personally, felt no tug from this movie. But I was enthralled watching it. This a beautiful and remarkable movie, worthy of a viewing. What it lacks in precise motivation it makes up for with a breathtaking vision.