92
Metascore
36 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 100New York Magazine (Vulture)David EdelsteinNew York Magazine (Vulture)David EdelsteinThe film is a masterpiece in which “locked-in” syndrome becomes the human condition.
- 100The New YorkerDavid DenbyThe New YorkerDavid DenbySchnabel’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.
- 100NewsweekDavid AnsenNewsweekDavid AnsenSchnabel, 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.
- 100PremiereGlenn KennyPremiereGlenn KennyEvery 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.
- 91Entertainment WeeklyLisa SchwarzbaumEntertainment WeeklyLisa SchwarzbaumThe most beautiful movie ever made about a man who could only move one eyelid -- almost dangerously beautiful.
- 91Christian Science MonitorPeter RainerChristian Science MonitorPeter RainerIn a film that overwhelmingly avoids happy-faced pronouncements, this one sticks out.
- 91The A.V. ClubTasha RobinsonThe A.V. ClubTasha RobinsonSchnabel'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.
- 88Rolling StonePeter TraversRolling StonePeter TraversThe 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.
- 80VarietyJustin ChangVarietyJustin ChangMost 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.
- 50Village VoiceVillage VoiceFar 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.