Think of this more as a reflection and a recommendation than a review of The Diving Bell and the Butterfly the film because as far as cinematics go I’m not one to critique unless a film is blatantly and laughably awful like In the Name of the King).

So, how did I hear about this movie. Using RottenTomatoes.com from time to time, I’ll browse the list of new releases on DVD and sort them according to rating. This one particularly caught my eye because its based on a true story and an adaptation of the subject’s autobiography by the same name. Further, that this man suffered a stroke but learned to communicate by means of blinking his left eye is astounding. It’s a “I gotta see this” kind of story. Finally, the 94% rating by the more reliable than not aggregation of reviewers over at RottenTomatoes.com got this film into my Blockbuster queue.

Being put into his place you feel the claustrophobia and the frustration of Jean-Dominique Bauby with locked-in syndrome. This film truly turns into an experience of paralysis as the camera “blinks” along with Bauby as he dictates his every word. You see the world from his world. Ultimately, the viewer is reminded of the frailty of life: one moment you’re a slick French magazine editor with a fast-paced lifestyle, mistresses, and ambition and the next your teenage son is wiping saliva from the corner of your mouth. This film points toward the need for the Great Physician to redeem the whole man one day, putting away all illness and disease and the consequences of the fall and the curses of sin and death.