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On Demand movie highlights

THE DIVING BELL AND THE BUTTERFLY ★ ★ ★ ½

(Starz on Comcast) A movie whose visual beauty transcends its sentimental trappings. The French magazine editor Jean-Dominique Bauby (Mathieu Almaric) suffered a stroke that left him cognitively vital but paralyzed except for his left eye, which he used to communicate. In many ways, this is a prison movie about transcending confinement. If a story about the human spirit doesn’t do it for you, the film, with its relentlessly inspired cinematography by Janusz Kaminski, doubles as a movie about the cinematic spirit. In French, with subtitles. (PG-13; runs through April 1) Wesley Morris

TWENTY-ONE ★ ★ ★

(Comcast Free Movies) Katie, an independent-minded young Londoner played by Patsy Kensit, reflects throughout this British-American drama on the men in her life. She tells a story into the camera about looking for sex and love in diverse places, and turns out to be not only a singularly spunky heroine, but one who can evoke the audience’s sympathy. (R; runs through Feb. 28)

AT FIRST SIGHT ★ ★

(Comcast Free Movies) Val Kilmer is affecting as a blind man who takes a chance on love with a sighted woman. Playing that woman, Mira Sorvino is affecting, too, partly because of the anxieties her character harbors and which she ably expresses. But the script (based on a true story) and the direction are more banal, blunting the impact. (PG-13; runs through May 1)

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