‘Diving Bell’ a powerful testament to human spirit

In theaters

THE DIVING BELL AND THE BUTTERFLY, directed by Julian Schnabel, written by Ronald Harwood, based on Jean-Dominique Bauby’s memoir, 112 minutes, rated PG-13, in French with English subtitles. Starts today, Railroad Square Cinema, Waterville.

Julian Schnabel’s “The Diving Bell and the Butterfly” is the moving, real-life story of Jean-Dominique Bauby (Mathieu Almaric), a former editor of the French fashion magazine Elle who, at 43, suffered a massive stroke that left him with something called “locked-in syndrome.”

The condition is as devastating as it sounds.

Though Bauby’s mind returned to full capacity upon waking from the coma induced by the stroke, his body was paralyzed. The only exception was his left eye, which he was able to use, and which became his only tool for communication in the months that followed.

Recently, the movie earned Schnabel (“Before Night Falls”) and his screenwriter, Ronald Harwood (“The Pianist”), Academy Award nominations for best director and best adapted screenplay, respectively, which they deserve. Their film is based on Bauby’s own memoir, published days before his death in 1997. If it’s the fact that Bauby was able to write a book at all that makes the movie such a testament to the human spirit, then it’s his sometimes sarcastic, other times deeply regretful internal monologue that makes the movie as powerful and as complex as it is.

Over the course of 14 months, Bauby dictated his memoir to Claude (Anne Consigny), a woman who became his closest confidante, by a system devised by his speech

therapist, Henriette (Marie-Josee Croze). The system involved Claude saying the most used letters of the alphabet first until she came upon the letter Bauby was seeking. When he stopped her with a blink, she noted the letter and repeated the process. Eventually, a word was formed, then a sentence and finally a book. So, you can imagine the effort this took.

Meanwhile, Bauby’s life – once a misguided, selfish force that lived large in Paris (as his imagination does now) – doesn’t stop just because his body stopped. Now, it must be reckoned with by those who come to visit. This includes bitter, conflicted Celine (Emmanuelle Seigner), the jilted mother of his three children, as well as a host of friends who hold him in varying levels of esteem, not to mention unwanted jolts of pity.

Bauby’s guilt-ridden girlfriend (Agathe de la Fontaine) visits by a tense telephone call, and his father, beautifully played by Max von Sydow in what should have been an Academy Award-nominated performance, only calls as well. At 92, he is too weak to visit his estranged son, and so all he can do is phone him and tell him how much he loves him, which leads the movie into some rather deep emotional waters.

But never into cheap sentiment. In spite of the rawness the film’s subject and its outcome court, Schnabel wisely didn’t create a weepy – far from it. This is a film about a flawed womanizer with little time for his children who comes to face himself by the vehicle of his own memoir. Bauby wasn’t pleased with what he saw there, but at least he had the courage to look, which allows you to respect the man in ways that make room for forgiveness and, in the end, a deep, unexpected sense of loss.

Grade: A

On DVD and Blu-ray disc

GONE BABY GONE, directed by Ben Affleck, written by Affleck and Aaron Stockard, based on Dennis Lehane’s novel, 115 minutes, rated R.

After seeing Ben Affleck’s solid directorial debut, maybe it’s time to suggest that the actor give up his day job and turn to writing and directing full time. If his movie is any indication, he could have a serious go of it.

“Gone Baby Gone” is a mature, engrossing drama that finds Affleck and cinematographer John Toll capturing a working-class section of Boston that reeks of havoc, desperation, drug use and danger.

Affleck’s brother, Casey, is Patrick Kenzie, a private investigator living with his girlfriend and business partner, Angie Gennaro (Michelle Monaghan), in Dorchester, Mass., when into their lives comes a business opportunity in the wake of a 4-year-old girl’s abduction.

Though the girl’s cocaine- and heroin-addicted mother (Amy Ryan) has all but shut down, her brother (Titus Welliver) and sister-in-law (Amy Madigan) want that baby back, and they’re willing to pay for outsiders to glean the sort of inside information they know the locals won’t share with the police.

Soon, each is on the case, which means working the living rooms, backrooms and sleazy bars in the surrounding area. The police aren’t happy about it, but Patrick and Angie do their best to navigate the icy head of the missing-person’s unit (Morgan Freeman) and two sketchy detectives (Ed Harris, John Ashton), while also trying to obtain information from the difficult denizens of Dorchester themselves, who in this movie are as hardcore as they come.

Beyond the performances, which are excellent, and the way the movie hooks into a noirish series of twists and surprises toward the end, what’s so satisfying about Affleck’s film is how authentic it feels. The director knows this neighborhood-he grew up not far from it-and he doesn’t cheat it by making it something it isn’t.

In this way, he recalls something of a young Spike Lee. He isn’t afraid to come home and tell the truth about these people in ways that nobody will mistake for flattery, particularly when he allows his characters to open their mouths and speak, which reveals, shall we say, a slightly cruder side of humanity. Going there takes respect for a place and its people, but it also takes guts, which, when Affleck isn’t spilling them on the floor as the investigation mounts, the director proves he has in spades.

Grade: B+

Visit www.weekinrewind.com, the archive of Bangor Daily News film critic Christopher Smith’s reviews, which appear Mondays, Fridays and weekends in Lifestyle as well as on bangordailynews.com. He may be reached at Christopher@weekinrewind.com.