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The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
Metascore
92 out of 100

Universal acclaim - based on 36 Critics

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 34 out of 36
  2. Mixed: 2 out of 36
  3. Negative: 0 out of 36
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  1. The Hollywood Reporter
    Reviewed by: Ray Bennett
    100
    Director Julian Schnabel and screenwriter Ronald Harwood have performed a small miracle in adapting for the screen Jean-Dominique Bauby's autobiography The Diving Bell and the Butterfly.
  2. Chicago Sun-Times
    Reviewed by: Roger Ebert
    100
    At the end we are left with the reflection that human consciousness is the great miracle of evolution, and all the rest (sight, sound, taste, hearing, smell, touch) are simply a toolbox that consciousness has supplied for itself.
  3. Chicago Tribune
    Reviewed by: Michael Phillips
    100
    It is wonderful: a rhapsodic adaptation of a memoir, a visual marvel that wraps its subject in screen romanticism without romanticizing his affliction. It left me feeling euphoric.
  4. New York Post
    Reviewed by: Lou Lumenick
    100
    You won't have a more viscerally emotional experience at the movies this year.
  5. TV Guide
    Reviewed by: Ken Fox
    100
    Amalric is extraordinary, creating a character literally without moving a muscle.
  6. Premiere
    Reviewed by: Glenn Kenny
    100
    Every performer in the international cast -- Seigner, de Bankole, von Sydow (magnificent as Bauby's father), and the late Jean-Pierre Cassel to name but a few -- completely disappears into each of their roles, which I think is as much a testament to Schnabel's talents as to theirs.
  7. The Globe and Mail (Toronto)
    Reviewed by: Liam Lacey
    100
    The adjective "inspirational" doesn't do justice to the quality of Schnabel's film.
  8. Charlotte Observer
    Reviewed by: Lawrence Toppman
    100
    Moviegoers are turned off by depressing topics, yet "Diving Bell" supplies something film fans claim they want: pure escapism, the chance to experience extreme sensations virtually none of us will ever have.
  9. Film Threat
    Reviewed by: Matthew Sorrento
    100
    Schnabel's film is so steeped in the visual that it is surely the purest of cinema.
  10. Baltimore Sun
    Reviewed by: Michael Sragow
    100
    The Diving Bell and the Butterfly provides an ecstatic lift for movielovers, despite the tragic subject.
  11. Salon.com
    Reviewed by: Stephanie Zacharek
    100
    The picture is so imaginatively made, so attuned to sensual pleasure, so keyed in to the indescribable something that makes life life, that it speaks of something far more elemental than mere filmmaking skill: This is what movies, at their best, can be.
  12. New York Magazine (Vulture)
    Reviewed by: David Edelstein
    100
    The film is a masterpiece in which "locked-in" syndrome becomes the human condition.
  13. Newsweek
    Reviewed by: David Ansen
    100
    Schnabel, screenwriter Ronald Harwood and Spielberg's great cinematographer Janusz Kaminski have found a way to take us inside Bauby's mind--his memories, his fantasies, his loves and lusts--transforming a story of physical entrapment and spiritual renewal into exhilarating images.
  14. Wall Street Journal
    Reviewed by: Joe Morgenstern
    100
    The movie has done what those who've cherished the book might have thought impossible -- intensified its singular beauty by roving as free and fearlessly as Bauby's mind did.
  15. Washington Post
    Reviewed by: Ann Hornaday
    100
    Thanks to Bauby's courageous and honest writing, and Schnabel's poetic interpretation, what could have been a portrait of impotence and suffering becomes a lively exploration of consciousness and a soaring ode to liberation.
  16. The New Yorker
    Reviewed by: David Denby
    100
    Schnabel's movie, based on the calm and exquisite little book that Bauby wrote in the hospital, is a gloriously unlocked experience, with some of the freest and most creative uses of the camera and some of the most daring, cruel, and heartbreaking emotional explorations that have appeared in recent movies.
  17. Chicago Reader
    Reviewed by: Andrea Gronvall
    100
    he Diving Bell and the Butterfly fuses experimental techniques with a highly accessible and sometimes humorous narrative; it's deeply personal yet universal in its humanism.
  18. Entertainment Weekly
    Reviewed by: Lisa Schwarzbaum
    91
    The most beautiful movie ever made about a man who could only move one eyelid -- almost dangerously beautiful.
  19. Portland Oregonian
    Reviewed by: Shawn Levy
    91
    Mathieu Amalric, best known as an arms dealer in "Munich." In a role that strips him entirely of vanity and denies him virtually every expressive tool, Amalric makes a genuinely touching impression.
  20. The A.V. Club
    Reviewed by: Tasha Robinson
    91
    Schnabel's sleepy, drifty, at times morbidly funny film tackles something more ambitious, by getting into the head of someone who's trying to get out of there himself.
  21. Christian Science Monitor
    Reviewed by: Peter Rainer
    91
    In a film that overwhelmingly avoids happy-faced pronouncements, this one sticks out.
  22. Los Angeles Times
    Reviewed by: Kenneth Turan
    90
    Simultaneously uplifting and melancholy, suffused with an unexpected sense of possibility as much as the inevitable sense of loss.
  23. The New York Times
    Reviewed by: A.O. Scott
    90
    In his memoir Mr. Bauby performed a heroic feat of alchemy, turning horror into wisdom, and Mr. Schnabel, following his example and paying tribute to his accomplishment, has turned pity into joy.
  24. Slate
    Reviewed by: Dana Stevens
    90
    With the help of brilliant French actor Mathieu Amalric, Spielberg's longtime cinematographer Janusz Kaminski, and screenwriter Ronald Harwood (The Pianist), Schnabel has made a marvelous film that uses images with as much grace and flair as Bauby used words.
  25. Austin Chronicle
    Reviewed by: Josh Rosenblatt
    89
    Could easily have tipped over into melodrama, but Schnabel is too much an artist to let that happen; he realizes that in order to make his hero truly substantial, and not just sympathetic, he has to present him as an ordinary man making the best of extraordinarily lousy circumstances. By doing so he's created a character we not only marvel at but identify with.
  26. Rolling Stone
    Reviewed by: Peter Travers
    88
    The movie will wipe you out. Schnabel's previous two films (Basquiat, Before Night Falls) also focused on artists. But this is his best film yet, a high-wire act of visual daring and unquenchable spirit.
  27. Philadelphia Inquirer
    Reviewed by: Carrie Rickey
    88
    The film is more than laborious eye-blinking - it's also dazzling visually, its potent imagery conjured by cinematographer Janusz Kaminski. But finally, Diving Bell is about something imperceptible: consciousness.
  28. Boston Globe
    Reviewed by: Wesley Morris
    88
    He even calls the majestic view from one of the hospital landings his Cinecittą, after the legendary Italian film studio. The movie is a Cinecittą of the mind.
  29. Seattle Post-Intelligencer
    Reviewed by: William Arnold
    83
    The movie never falls into gushy moments of inspiration and Schnabel never tries to manipulate any particular response from the audience. We're left to make of it what we will.
  30. Empire
    Reviewed by: Alan Morrison
    80
    A poignant reflection on what it means to be alive and, visually, a true cinematic experience.
  31. Variety
    Reviewed by: Justin Chang
    80
    Most compelling in its attempts to re-create the experience of paralysis onscreen, gorgeously lensed pic morphs into a dreamlike collage of memories and fantasies, distancing the viewer somewhat from Bauby's consciousness even as it seeks to take one deeper.
  32. New York Daily News
    Reviewed by: Elizabeth Weitzman
    75
    Take us on an indelible tour through the highest and lowest points of the human experience.
  33. San Francisco Chronicle
    Reviewed by: Mick LaSalle
    75
    By the end, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly achieves a victory over difficult material, but celebrating that fact doesn't preclude recognizing the story is not a natural for movies and remains an uneasy match.
  34. USA Today
    Reviewed by: Claudia Puig
    75
    Whereas the book was lyrical and moving, the movie is surrealistic and inventive.
  35. Village Voice
    Reviewed by: Scott Foundas
    50
    Far too often, though, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly feels grotesquely calculated, especially the more Schnabel ratchets up the inspirational platitudes of exactly the sort that Bauby--who maintained an acerbic sense of humor about his situation until the very end--would have despised.
  36. Time
    Reviewed by: Richard Schickel
    50
    Still, somewhat shame-faced I have to admit that at some point in the film I began to hear a subversive voice whispering in my ear, and what it was saying was, "Could you blink a little faster, pal?"
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User Reviews

All reviews »
User Score
8.2 out of 10

Universal acclaim- based on 110 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 39 out of 45
  2. Mixed: 3 out of 45
  3. Negative: 3 out of 45
  1. bda
    10
    Schnabel nailed it.
  2. Paul
    10
    I dont like many films. They bore me. I want real stories. The art is in the story-telling not the action. A good story is not one whose content is WOW. It's one which is well told. A good story teller can captivate you with tales of how he does his grocery shopping. The plot of this film is simple. Man enters coma. Man tries to get better. Man writes book. The End. No guns. No fighting. No sex. Beautifully told. The French have a nack for producing films with a strong artistic bent. Beautifully shot. Dripping with philosophyical weight. This is one such movie. Every 5 minutes a new seed for thought is planted, allowed to flourish and cut down. I implore you to watch this film if you have a concentration span of more than 5 minutes. Typical of criticisms are responses like those ushered by the Time magazine reviewer where he "began to hear a subversive voice whispering in my ear, and what it was saying was, "Could you blink a little faster, pal?" " I cant help but notice the irony when the film questions our "want it all, now" culture by contrasting his life as the editor of a superficial magazine with one where he is forced to think. Indeed it is in this contrast that much character development lies. In subtleties rather than plotlines reminiscent of epic Shakesperean tragedies. Go see it.… Full Review »
  3. BryanW.
    10
    Only someone with the creative vision as broad as Julian Schnabel could make a film this free about a man locked in his own body. Simply amazing...
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