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.

Minority Report review

 Number 639 on the top 1000 films of all time is Steven Spielberg's 2002 science-fiction action film Minority Report.

Set in 2054, the Precrime police programme has virtually eliminated all pre-meditated murders in Washington DC. Three clairvoyant humans named 'precogs' including Agatha (Samantha Morton) receive psychic impressions of homicides and are able to alert the police who can stop the crimes before they even happen. One of these police is the Precrime police department chief John Anderton (Tom Cruise,) whose six-year-old son was abducted and never found. When DOJ agent Danny Witwur (Colin Farrell) audits the system, Anderton receives the disturbing news that he is about to kill Leo Crow - a man that he has never met. He quickly goes on the run, as the system he has fought to up-hold slowly turns against him.

Generally, I'm not a fan of science-fiction films. I find that they can be overly-intellectual and pretentious, with their writers being more concerned with showing off how clever they are rather than writing a comprehensible film. However, I think Minority Report struck the balance between intelligent social-commentary and thrilling action. It definitely helped that it had Stephen Spielberg directing it. Minority Report had all the excitement of his most famous blockbusters like Jaws, Jurassic Park and Indiana Jones, but also the thoughtfulness like some of his quieter works such as the Colour Purple.

Perhaps it helped that Minority Report spanned multiple genres. It wasn't just science-fiction, but also a psychological thriller. Sometimes science-fiction can be insufferably dull, slow and boring *cough cough* the remake of Solaris, but the chase element kept this film moving along nicely. John Anderton is against the clock to solve the predicted murder of Leo Crow, before the authorities find and punish him. 

Tom Cruise is well-known for his action-roles which made him the perfect fit for John Anderton. Anderton is your cut-and-dry hero - he is a handsome, law-abiding man accused of a crime that he hasn't committed yet. It isn't the most original of characters, but it didn't have to be. And Cruise did it well.

But no actor is a vacuum and Cruise did have a strong supporting cast. You had Farrell as the slimy villain-turned-unlikely ally Danny Witwur, but also Samantha Morton as the lead precog Agatha. As we learn more about her, we learn all about her tragic past and Morton did well in bringing this tragedy to life. Max Von Sydow was particularly menacing as the precrime director Lamar Burgess and Peter Stormare brought a wonderfully chaotic energy to the sleazy Dr. Solomon Eddie.

Minority Report was certainly an entertaining film. I enjoyed watching it as it perfectly balanced the big questions of science-fiction with the edge-of-the-seat action of a psychological thriller.