Review of The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (2007) by Natalie A — 06 Jun 2009

I just couldn't make a connection at the emotional level to this movie and its main character, a severely paralyzed stroke victim, Jean. Maybe I just shouldn't have watched the English language version.

The cinematography is incapable of conveying the intolerable body prison Jean is confined to despite efforts. Note how when Jean seems to miraculously! beat his suicidal tendencies the camera finally views the world not just from Jean's point of view but also that of the third person, perhaps Jean's own imagination as he sets it free now to act as the only human quality that's left for him.

Characters around Jean are very poorly developed, such as the speech therapist or his own assistant who are portrayed as mere angels with selfless care for Jean with apparently no personal motivation other than their own virtues.

Some stories are better left unfilmed, just left at the book/script level where portraying imagination may miserably fail such as in this movie. I have not read the autobiography as written by Jean-Dominique Bauby himself but I can already sense I would have liked it much better than the cinematic version.