The Diving Bell and the Butterfly review

 Number 264 on the top 1000 films of all time is the French biographical drama: 'The Diving Bell and the Butterfly.'

Based on the true story, TDBATB tells the story of Jean-Dominique "Jean-Do" Bauby (Mathieu Amalric) the editor of Elle magazine. After a stroke leaves him with locked-in syndrome, he is forced to adapt to a whole new way of living.

TDBATB is based on the story that the real-life Jean-Do wrote while he was in locked-in syndrome, all through a letter chart, a pain-stakingly slow system of blinking and a very helpful assistant. It is a tragic story, but also an inspirational one.

The movie adaptation does the story justice. Director Julian Schnabel did brilliantly to make us feel the shame and humiliation that Jean-Do felt during his ordeal. He goes from being a healthy forty-two-year-old to not even be able to wash himself without assistance. It is a pitiful existence, yet we have a lot of empathy for Jean-Do.

This was partly because the first third of the film is told entirely from his POV, accompanied by his cynical narration. The audience are figuring things out the same time as him. This intimate, even claustrophobic perspective put us firmly in Jean-Do's shoes. Even if we didn't want to, we were forced to experience how awful his life had become.  

The rest of the film is told more conventionally leading it to lose its unique perspective. I understand that a first-person POV might have been difficult to sustain throughout the whole film, but its intimacy is what made it so powerful. We weren't looking at Jean-do through an external lens with an external bias, but through his own eyes, hearing his thoughts, his feelings and his voice.

Considering Mathieu Amalric had little to act with, but his voice, he did well in making Jean-Do, a sympathetic, yet powerful character. And his character was never reduced to a joke or a cruel cartoon.

In many ways, the film is a deep introspection into Jean-Do's life, as he reflects on his successes, many failures and different relationships. The most notable of these is his relationship with his ageing father, Mr Bauby SR, played masterfully by Max Von Sydow. His father is very much a mirror-image of his son. Whereas his son is trapped in his own body, Mr Bauby is trapped on the top floor of his apartment building, too scared to use the many steps. Sydow was brilliant in the part, and their relationship was very moving.

The Diving Bell and the Butterfly was a brilliant introspective into not only locked-in-syndrome, but also the human condition. Even with locked-in-syndrome, Jean-Do is a still a human who deserves our love and respect. Sometimes that is something we forget.

The Butterfly Effect review

 Number 578 on the top 1000 films of all time is the science-fiction thriller 'The Butterfly Effect.'

Evan Treborn (Ashton Kutcher) is a young man who used to have unexplained blackouts as a child. Once grown up, he's realised that he can time travel whenever he reads certain entries of his journal. He begins going back in time to right his wrongs and change not just life, but girlfriend Kayleigh's (Amy Smart,) her psychotic brother Tommy (William Lee Scott) and their friend Lenny (Elden Henson.)

Science-fiction films always have the tendency of prioritising the big philosophical themes over the characters sic 2001: a Space Odyssey. However, I would argue that the opposite happened here. The premise is interesting enough - a real life embodiment of the Butterfly Effect - the smallest of actions can have the biggest of consequences. Or as the opening line reads: "it has been said that something as small as the flutter of a butterfly's wings can ultimately cause a typhoon halfway around the world."

But this original concept was let down by its execution. It felt very much like a teen movie with a loose science-fiction premise. It didn't help you had Ashton Kutcher as the lead. He wasn't particularly bad as a dramatic actor, but he is much better known for his role as dumb teenage pretty boy Michael Kelso in the 70's show. He certainly wasn't able to shake off his teen heart-throb image here. It also didn't help that much of the film took place on a university campus. The film came out in 2005 and it sounds and looks like it did. The characters are so dated in the way they talk and dress. For a film about time travel, somewhat ironically, this film is anything but timeless.

Much of the film also took place in flashbacks showing our principle cast as children and alter teenagers. And the child actors were just not good especially Logan Lerman and John Patrick Amedori as Evan at ages seven and thirteen respectively. When the adult Evan goes back in time, he embodies his younger selves, but with his present mind. And so when they're speaking, it is actually the adult Evan speaking and the dialogue sounded awful coming out of the younger actor's mouths. Their delivery was just awkward and unnatural.

This is a shame as this did have the potential to be an interesting film. It was an entertaining enough thriller, but it very much failed as potent science-fiction.