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Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune: It is wonderful: a rhapsodic adaptation of a memoir, a visual marvel that wraps its subject in screen romanticism without romanticizing his affliction. Read more
Joe Morgenstern, Wall Street Journal: 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. Read more
Moira MacDonald, Seattle Times: A film of rare imagination; a collage of unnerving images and great artistry. Read more
Tasha Robinson, AV Club: The putative film adaptation reaches well beyond the contents of that book, expanding its philosophical resignation into a grim but beautiful visual poem. Read more
Richard Nilsen, Arizona Republic: May well be the best movie of the year. Read more
Wesley Morris, Boston Globe: If a movie about the human spirit doesn't do it for you, The Diving Bell thoroughly doubles as a movie about the cinematic spirit. Read more
Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times: The film, based on the memoir of Jean-Dominique Bauby, handles delicate subject matter with sensitivity and imagination. Read more
Andrea Gronvall, Chicago Reader: Profoundly moving. Read more
Amy Biancolli, Houston Chronicle: A film that haunts and inspires. Read more
Peter Rainer, Christian Science Monitor: The film is a visual and auditory feast. Read more
Lisa Kennedy, Denver Post: The film is a triumph of empathy. Read more
Tom Long, Detroit News: [Director Julian] Schnabel isn't going anywhere astounding in this film; it is, after all, about a man who can't move. But he is exploring the vast potential of both imagination and spirit. Read more
Lisa Schwarzbaum, Entertainment Weekly: The Diving Bell and the Butterfly is the most beautiful movie ever made about a man who could only move one eyelid -- almost dangerously beautiful. Read more
Bruce Newman, San Jose Mercury News: Director Julian Schnabel uses his skill as a painter to assemble a collage of fantastical images to reveal the exquisite physical wreck that Bauby has become. Read more
Christy Lemire, Associated Press: Astonishingly beautiful and self-consciously so. Read more
Jan Stuart, Newsday: The visual lyricism and irascible humor of Julian Schnabel's screen adaptation make for a life-against-the-odds drama like none you've ever seen. Read more
David Ansen, Newsweek: The Diving Bell and the Butterfly keeps opening up, its structure mimicking the awakening of its extraordinary protagonist's mind. Read more
David Denby, New Yorker: 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. Read more
David Edelstein, New York Magazine/Vulture: The film is a masterpiece in which "locked-in" syndrome becomes the human condition. Read more
Stephen Whitty, Newark Star-Ledger: The best parts of the film are when the two men work together, Schnabel providing reams of unconscious images and Amalric commenting on them. Read more
Bob Mondello, NPR.org: What's fascinating is that it is the very restrictions the story imposes on a director that allow Schnabel to turn it into such an eerie stunner of a movie. Read more
Elizabeth Weitzman, New York Daily News: In The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, director Julian Schnabel and his gifted lead, Mathieu Amalric, take us on an indelible tour through the highest and lowest points of the human experience. Read more
Lou Lumenick, New York Post: Yes, it's in French and it's arty (in good ways) - but I promise you won't have a more viscerally emotional experience at the movies this year. Read more
Andrew Sarris, New York Observer: Astonishingly lyrical and profoundly moving. Read more
Roger Moore, Orlando Sentinel: It's a subject and a film that perfectly blends the tragic with the triumphant. Read more
Carrie Rickey, Philadelphia Inquirer: Dazzling visually. Read more
James Berardinelli, ReelViews: This is a special motion picture that achieves its higher agenda of doing much more than idly plucking at a few heartstrings. Read more
Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: Here is the life force at its most insistent, lashing out against fate with stubborn resolve. And also with lust, hunger, humor and all of the other notes that this man once played so easily. Read more
Stephanie Zacharek, Salon.com: The picture is so beautiful to look at that it's practically buoyant. Read more
Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle: 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. Read more
Dana Stevens, Slate: With the help of brilliant French actor Mathieu Amalric, Spielberg's longtime cinematographer Janusz Kaminski, and screenwriter Ronald Harwood, Schnabel has made a marvelous film that uses images with as much grace and flair as Bauby used words. Read more
Colin Covert, Minneapolis Star Tribune: The Diving Bell and the Butterfly tells one extraordinary man's story so well that it reflects vividly on our own. Read more
Joe Williams, St. Louis Post-Dispatch: An exquisite metaphor for the redemptive power of cinema. Without an ounce of cheap sentiment, this true story is as profoundly moving and dreamily beautiful as any film in recent memory. Read more
Liam Lacey, Globe and Mail: The Diving Bell and the Butterfly isn't about feeling better about terrible things, but about cherishing imagination as the force that sustains life. Read more
Peter Howell, Toronto Star: The Diving Bell and the Butterfly is one of the best movies of 2007, but I'd argue it's also the one most in tune with what this season of goodwill and tolerance is supposed to be all about. Read more
Susan Jakes, TIME Magazine: As a writer, I admire it greatly...As a moviegoer I'm less certain about the movie's effectiveness. Read more
Claudia Puig, USA Today: An inspiring tale of one man's triumph over adversity often devolves into a cinematic cliche, more earnest than truly moving. Thankfully, Diving Bell avoids those pitfalls. Read more
Justin Chang, Variety: 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. Read more
Scott Foundas, Village Voice: From its relentless visual distortion to its wearying parade of Felliniesque fantasy sequences, Schnabel's film wants you to know that it's art with a capital 'A.' It's also disability porn with a capital 'D.' Read more
Ann Hornaday, Washington Post: 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. Read more